
Credit: U.S geological Survey
Hole in the Ground
by Michael Armstrong and Mel Acheson
Central Oregon has two craters roughly aligned East-West and about
10 kilometers apart that have geologists guessing. But how reliable
are the guesses if geologists exclude the only explanation that can
account for the wide spectrum of geologic scars on other planets and moons?
Pictured above is the more perfectly formed "Hole in the Ground"
crater. (The other, "Big Hole", is about 10 km to the west, less
defined, and slightly bigger and deeper). One geologic survey of
“Hole in the Ground” measured a floor 150 meters below and a rim 35
to 65 meters above original ground level, with a diameter from rim
to rim of about 1.6 kilometers. Geological estimates of dating range
from 13,500 to 100,000 years ago.
The two holes in central Oregon are not particularly dramatic, just
two minor illustrations of a widespread dilemma faced by geologists.
One account of “Hole in the Ground” says: "Although it closely
resembles a crater caused by a meteor strike, it is thought to be
the result of volcanic activity simply because it lacks the metal
fragments found in meteor strikes". In other words, there is no
positive evidence for the volcanic interpretation, just a deduction
from a prior theory that sees no other alternative.
In these pages we have contended that craters on other bodies in the
solar system that are universally assigned to impact events are,
with few exceptions, a result of interplanetary "thunderbolts".
"Hole in the Ground"—and innumerable counterparts around the world
(sometimes interpreted as “maars” produced by the interaction of
rising magma with groundwater), should be examined with that idea in
mind. In fact, the crater is situated in a region that electric
theorists have identified as some of the most spectacular electrical
scarring on Earth (a subject of coming Pictures of the Day).
Testing the electrical interpretation model would be simple and
eminently feasible. Like Meteor Crater in Arizona (which Wallace
Thornhill identifies as a superb example of an electrical
crater–complete with nearby sinuous rilles) we should find evidence
of fulgurites (glassified soil caused by lightning) and/or shocked
minerals beneath the crater or in the walls. Finding a solid
crater floor with core samples under the fragmented material inside
the crater, and matching core samples taken from the same depth but
outside the crater should confirm the continuity of the strata. This
would eliminate any possibility of the crater being
produced by a volcanic mechanism.
Just as the planet Mars has a region with giant "volcanoes" and a
colossal canyon, the electrical theorists point to similar scarring
on Earth, but on a much-reduced scale. Electric scarring proponents
contend that the study of Mars' surface relief can tell us more
about craters, volcanoes, and gorges—even the
Grand Canyon—than
the centuries spent studying the Earth. The ancient “gods of the
thunderbolt" have much to teach us.
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