BLOODY CREEK IMPACT STRUCTURE

BLOODY CREEK IMPACT STRUCTURE

by: Charles O’Dale

  • Type: Simple
  • Age (ma): <2.6 (Geological dating)aPLEISTOCENE
  • Diameter: 350 X 420 Metres;
  • N 44° 45′ W 65° 15.6′

Structures are interpreted to be post-Pliocene (<2.6 Ma), based on the unlikelihood of their preservation during Cretaceous-Paleogene regional peneplanation. (Spooner et al2015)

Aerial photo (A-77313-62) of the Bloody Creek structure. The air photo was taken in July 1977 before the region was flooded for hydroelectric development. The structure is located within a fen flanked by low wooded hills. Thin section sample locations are indicated as A, B, C, and between points D to E. The arrow points to an exposed bedrock outcrop. (Spooner et al 2009)
We took this image of the Bloody Creek structure in May 2013. The superimposed ellipse is the approximate location of the impact.

The North structure: evidence for a second possible impact event at the Bloody Creek site, Nova Scotia, Canada

Ian Spooner, Peir Pufahl, Trevor Brisco, Jared Morrow, Mariella Nalepa, Peter Williams, George Stevens

Abstract

The North structure is a discontinuous, partially flooded elliptical basin 250 m in diameter and defined by arcuate scarps. It is located in Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, approximately 1 km north of the Bloody Creek structure, a possible 400 m-diameter elliptical impact crater. Geophysical surveys indicate that raised scarps border a broadly elliptical basin with depth/diameter ratios similar to those at the Bloody Creek structure. Percussion coring and probing indicated that the basin is in-filled with 3.5 m of lacustrine sediment and peat overlying post-glacial alluvial sediment and diamicton. Samples collected proximal to the rim of the structure contain kink-bands in feldspar and biotite and possible planar microstructures in quartz and feldspar. The elliptical nature and similar, anomalous morphometries of the North and Bloody Creek structures indicate that two, low-angled, genetically linked impacts may have taken place at the site. Both structures are interpreted to be post-Pliocene (<2.6 Ma), based on the unlikelihood of their preservation during Cretaceous-Paleogene regional peneplanation.

 

“An approximately 0.4 km diameter elliptical structure formed in Devonian granite in southwestern Nova Scotia, herein named the Bloody Creek structure (BCS), is identified as a possible impact crater. Evidence for an impact origin is based on integrated geomorphic, geophysical, and petrographic data. A near-continuous geomorphic rim and a 10 m deep crater that is infilled with lacustrine sediments and peat define the BCS. Ground penetrating radar shows that the crater has a depressed inner floor that is sharply ringed by a 1 m high buried scarp. Heterogeneous material under the floor, interpreted as deposits from collapse of the transient cavity walls, is overlain by stratified and faulted lacustrine and wetland sediments.

Alteration features found only in rim rocks include common grain comminution, polymict lithic microbreccias, kink-banded feldspar and biotite, single and multiple sets of closely spaced planar microstructures (PMs) in quartz and feldspar, and quartz mosaicism, rare reduced mineral birefringence, and chlorite showing plastic deformation and flow microtextures. Based on their form and crystallographic orientations, the quartz PMs consist of planar deformation features that document shock-metamorphic pressures ≤25 GPa.

The age of the BCS is not determined. The low depth to diameter ratio of the crater, coupled with anomalously high shock-metamorphic pressures recorded at its exposed rim, may be a result of significant post-impact erosion. Alternatively, impact onto glacier ice during the waning stages of Wisconsinian deglaciation (about 12 ka BP) may have resulted in dissipation of much impact energy into the ice, resulting in the present morphology of the BCS” (ABSTRACT – Spooner et al 2009).

Ground penetrating radar survey and interpretation of the Bloody Creek structure. Ground-penetrating radar traverses were obtained when the site was frozen in winter. They confirm the crater morphology of the structure, and the distinction of the shallow levels from the undisturbed bedrock. (Spooner et al 2009)
This elliptical feature caused a stir in the international scientific community. (Cooper 1989)
Bloody Creek structure is an elliptical 0.35 x 0.42 km diameter NW trending depression, 10 m deep, rimmed by a continuous low scarp and filled with lacustrine and wetland sediments. The structure formed within the medium- to coarse-grained biotite monzogranite of the Scrag Lake pluton, the older group of the 388-372 Ma South Mountain Batholith. The area has been glaciated, has a low relief and is mostly covered by <5 m thick till, wetland, lake and forest. The structure is now flooded by a dam.

The gallery below is a series of images taken as we approached the Bloody Creek structure from the north. The approximate location of the impact is indicated in each image.


From the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada – 1995


“Petrographic, geophysical and geomorphic evidence indicate that the BCS is likely an impact crater. The elliptical crater rim is not a common feature and may be an indication of oblique impact (or a double-bolide impact – C, O’Dale). The relatively shallow depth of the BCS is anomalous and, together with the high shock-metamorphic pressures recorded at the rim of the crater, may indicate that significant post-impact erosion has taken place. Alternatively, impact onto thin glacier ice overlying bedrock may have resulted in the low relative depth of the BCS” (CONCLUSIONS – Spooner et al 2009).


References

[see – METEORITE]

Cooper, R. Acadia geoscientists identify asteroid crater in Nova Scotia. Eye on Canada Research 2009.

Brent Dalrymple, Radiometric Dating Does Work! Reports of the National Center for Science Education

Ian Spooner, Peir Pufahl, Trevor Brisco, Jared Morrow, Mariella Nalepa, Peter Williams, George Stevens The North structure: evidence for a second possible impact event at the Bloody Creek site, Nova Scotia, Canada Atlantic Geology Volume 51 (2015)

Ian SPOONER, George STEVENS, Jared MORROW, Peir PUFAHL, Richard GRIEVE, Rob RAESIDE, Jean PILON, Cliff STANLEY, Sandra BARR, and David MCMULLIN, Identification of the Bloody Creek structure, a possible impact crater in southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada. Meteoritics & Planetary Science 44, Nr 8, 1193–1202 (2009)

Hypothesis: Younger Dryas Extinction Relationship?

Haynes, C. V., Younger Dryas ‘‘black mats’’ and the Rancholabrean termination in North America Departments of Anthropology and Geosciences, Arizona, January 23, 2008.

Isabel Israde-Alcántara, James L. Bischoff, Gabriela Domínguez-Vázquez, Hong-Chun Li, Paul S. DeCarli, Ted E. Bunch, James H. Wittke, James C. Weaver, Richard B. Firestone, Allen West, James P. Kennett, Chris Mercer, Sujing Xie, Eric K. Richman, Charles R. Kinzie, and Wendy S. Wolbach, Evidence from central Mexico supporting the Younger Dryas extraterrestrial impact hypothesis, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, January 31, 2012

Younger Dryas Extinction, Impact Related? (Bloody Creek @ 29:30).