The Story of My As-Yet-Unverified Impact Crater

tetrahedrassface writes "When I was very young, my dad took me on a trip to his parents' farm. He wanted to show me 'The Crater.' We walked a long way through second generation hardwoods and finally stood on the rim of a hole that has no equal in this area. As I grew up, I became more interested in The Crater, and would always tell friends about it. It is roughly 1,200 feet across and 120 feet deep, and has a strange vibe about it. When you walk up to it, you feel like something really big happened here. Either the mother of all caves is down there, or a large object smashed into this place a long, long time ago. I bought aerial photos when I was twelve and later sent images from GIS to a geologist at a local university. He pretty much laughed me out of his office, saying that it was a sinkhole. He did wish me luck, however. It may be sinkhole. Who knows? Last week I borrowed a metal detector and went poking around, and have found the strangest shrapnel pieces I have ever seen. They are composed of a metal that reacts strongly to acids. The largest piece so far reacted with tap water and dish-washing detergent. My second trip today yielded lots of strange new pieces of metal, and hopefully, one day the truth will be known. Backyard science is so much fun. And who knows; if it is indeed a cave, maybe Cerberus resides there."

Comments

Hmm

[RenHoek]

Why does this remind so much of The Story of Barbie Head Archeology...

Take it to a uni

[Old Wolf]

How about taking a bit down to the geology department at the local university? Find out what the crater actually is. It could be important :)

Re:Take it to a uni

[Kreychek]

But if an expert told him, it wouldn't be unverified... or a crater, and thus not newsworthy.

skeptics... unite!

[igotmybfg]

are you (my fellow /.ers) sure this isn't a stalking horse for some kind of viral advertisement / alternate reality game?

You know why?

[IICV]

He pretty much laughed me out of his office, saying that it was a sinkhole. He did wish me luck, however. It may be sinkhole.

You know why he laughed you out of his office? Because you went in there saying "Look! I've got an as-yet undiscovered crater in my backyard! Or maybe it's a big cave or something!"

It makes you sound like some easily-impressed idiot who doesn't know the first thing about rocks, which is probably what you are - something that irregular and in soil that looks that soft is almost certainly not a crater. I mean, just compare it to a picture of an actual crater; they're nothing alike.

And then you go off about "oooh when I put water on these rocks they bubble!", like you've never heard of limestone (and it sounds like you probably haven't), and "I found weird lumps of metal!" like you've never heard of (oh I don't know) humans leaving shit around.

Seriously, you sound like the worst sort of credulous idiot. There's a reason why they say "ten hours in the lab will save you an hour in the library" - do some reading up on even the most basic geology first (and I mean fucking basic, not the awesome stuff like impact craters or mega sinkholes or what have you), then start telling people about how awesome it is. I'm sure that formation is, actually, very interesting - you don't get areas with (apparently) a lot of water and a lot of limestone without at least some neat stuff happening - but you don't need to start by making shit up!

Re:You know why?

[Ziekheid]

You might be right at most of your points but there is no need to talk an enthusiastic person down like that. I for one am glad that people who haven't even studied this matter take interest in their local area and try to find out what it actually is.
I agree though that you should always go for the most logical assumption first.

Re:You know why?

[IICV]

You might be right at most of your points but there is no need to talk an enthusiastic person down like that. I for one am glad that people who haven't even studied this matter take interest in their local area and try to find out what it actually is.

But that's the thing! He's not taking an interest! He's literally in the process of making up an urban legend.

I mean the parts are all there - "I've known about a place where weird stuff happens since I was a kid. I went to a well-established authority figure and he laughed me out of his office! Then I went back to the place where weird things happen and I found all sorts of strange artifacts! Oh my gosh! Tickets are $5 a person."

Seriously, give this guy another couple of years and he'll have found ancient Mayan ruins (nevermind the fact that the Mayans never came up here) complete with alien doohickies.

It's like this: taking an interest is looking at what's actually there. This guy is clearly only looking at what he wants to see. The overblown, sensationalist Slashdot summary is just a symptom of underlying delusions of mystery, and honestly fits perfectly with the generic urban legend narrative.

In fact, I bet you anything the geologist did absolutely nothing even remotely like laughing the poster out of his office - the poster e-mailed the geologist some pictures; physically being inside someone's office is a prerequisite for being laughed out of it, and honestly it doesn't work that at all if you interpret the sentence as a metaphor (I mean how do you know the geologist was laughing at you in an e-mail? Is it perhaps because at some level you know that your claims are, in and of themselves, laughable?). However, that phrase fit the story so perfectly we're expected to overlook this detail.

Re:You know why?

[vegiVamp]

> there is no need to talk an enthusiastic person down like that

Wish I could pass some of my users on to you. They're really enthusiastic about things, I can tell you. Almost enough to make up for their utter lack of understanding or their complete inability to understand even basic concepts.

Sometimes a good mental kicking is the best you can do for them, not to mention yourself.

Re:You know why?

[Anonymous Coward]

(Apparently) unlike you, the submitter acknowledges the possibility of being wrong, and still has a childlike fascination for the things we all know too much about to be inspired by. Also, we have yet to know what was meant by "mailed" and whether or not a subsequent office visit took place. Your post seems to reveal more about your own assumptions than the submitter's.

Re:You know why?

[nschubach]

It's been my experience that science is pretty sucky. If we called the news media every time we found a chunk of metal and predetermined it to be alien artifacts, we'd all be Scientologists.

It has nothing to do with being "close minded" as much as it has to be about finding the truth before making up what you want it to be.

Re:Cut it!

[dkf]

Cut the stone with angle grinder, polish the cut, show us the picture. Meteorites have quite distinctive texture.

Also try getting some shavings from the inside of the lump and heating them strongly in a flame (a small blowtorch is ideal for this). The color of flame created will indicate what metals/metal ions are involved (OK, cruder than using a spectroscope, but easy to do with stuff that many people have lying around).

Seems geologist was politer than IICV

[Kupfernigk]

Why are you using abusive language to a complete stranger, just because he doesn't know as much geology and chemistry as you do? Perhaps you should think about attending a course on anger management.

Re:Seems geologist was politer than IICV

[IICV]

Oh you're looking for gentle encouragement? I'm so sorry, this is Slashdot - we only offer abuse and Soviet Russia jokes. Oh and sharks with lasers on their heads. Okay, we offer three things...

As I said to a sibling poster: if this dude was actually looking to understand what is going on, he wouldn't be making up stories like this - he would be actually researching the area. Instead, he takes pictures of lumps of rock and names the image file "meteor"; he's clearly far more interested in telling a made-up story about the place than in actually doing the research and finding out what's happening there. I mean, really, more power to you if you want to do that - but don't demand that everyone else respect you for your made up bullshit, and refrain from pointing out how you're being dumb.

Re:never heard of metorites reacting with water

[speroni]

Does it not rain there?

Surely if the metals reacted to water they would have had the chance by now.

Re:Have studied Geomorphology

[ShaunC]

Absolutely do not apologize for your language. Your English is better than many native English speakers'.

A little harsh maybe.

[LWATCDR]

The thing is that on Slashdot no one knows how old you are.
If this poster is 14 or 15 he may be on the start of becoming a very good geologist.
Even 18 he still is just really enthusiastic.
I agree this is probably a sink hole of some kind and not an impact. But that is only a guess I have only a passing knowledge of geology but none of the rocks shown seem all that odd to me.
You never educate through ridicule and for all you know you just made some 16 year old girl just getting into science cry.