Re: Gondwana Buster!

["Peter Harries (GLY)" <harries@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

George-
	Unfortunately due to the renovation of our building and our
current housing in trailers, I don't have access to the chart (it's packed
away in some box somewhere), but as I remember it the +300 km crater was
dashed with something like "predicted"  inscribed with in it.  I have a
feeling that the compilers of this chart were inspired by the bolide 
hypothesis and the presence of the "mother of all mass extinctions" to 
suggest that this large event must have been produced by a whopper.  But 
as pointed out in Doug's book, the data in support of an impact at the P-
Tr are equivocal at best.  There would also seem to be a bit of timing 
problem--at least as far as I know rifting initiated later in the Triassic.
	Well, if you need fun during finals, you should be here at USF.  
We had/have a bomb scare and threat to also assassinate one female 
professor.  The administration decided to cancel finals week and push 
them into the last week with very short notice--causing many students to 
completely panic.  A week of cramming time down the tubes.


Peter Harries

============================================================================
Peter J. Harries			Phone: (813) 974-4974
Department of Geology			Fax: (813) 974-2654
University of South Florida		Email: harries@chuma.cas.usf.edu
4202 E. Fowler Ave., SCA 203
Tampa, FL    33620-5200
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On Thu, 25 Apr 1996, George Mcghee wrote:

> I would like to add my name to those wishing to hear more about the putative
> mega-impact postulated to precipitate the breakup of Gondawana -- fondly
> known as the Gondwana Buster.
> 
> To add my two-cents-of-data worth to the original request for literature
> citations concerning the GB, I note that on the A CORRELATED HISTORY OF 
> EARTH color wall-chart (which is otherwise very nice; produced ty Pan
> Terra Inc of Afton MN, USA) the GB appears as a 300+ crater producer right
> at the Permian/Triassic boundary.  Thus the GB may have "busted" (ouch!)
> more than Gondwana -- it may have produced the "Mother of all Mass Extinctions"
> (to paraphrase the title of chapter 9 in Doug Erwin's excellent book on the
> same).
> 
> Unfortunately for those of us who like to see some hard citations, there
> is no specific literature citation given for the GB on the one-page list
> of literature which accompanies the wall-chart (alas!), else I would be
> happy to pass it on in response to the original request for info.
> 
> Please reply ON NET -- things have been a bit quiet lately, and this might
> be fun during Final Exam Season.
> 
> George McGhee
>