Asteroids are a potential danger which few people expect to encounter during their lifetime.
Yet, there exists dozens of recent examples of large impact craters on the planet.
One of these impact features is located within the vast oil fields of Texas.
Known as Odessa Crater, it formed when a small asteroid collided with the planet during the
last ice age.
Although it is not as impressive or large as Meteor Crater in Arizona, it still provides
an excellent example of a young impact feature.
The blast which formed this feature was similar in size to a lower yield nuclear weapon, which
left behind a 550 foot or 168 meter wide crater.
This video will discuss this young impact crater, and mention how often similar impact
events occur on the planet.
63,500 years ago, a large mass of rock was on a collision course with earth.
The asteroid in question was approximately 22.5 feet or 6.9 meters wide, which happened
to be unusually rich in iron and nickel.
Thus, it was an iron meteorite thought to have originated from a section of core of
a much larger and more ancient asteroid.
As this asteroid made its final approach towards the planet, it was traveling at a velocity
of 25 kilometers per second or 56,000 miles per hour.
Entering the atmosphere, this dense asteroid was traveling at an unusually shallow angle
of 13 degrees.
Soon, large sections of the asteroid began to disintegrate as it rapidly burned up in
the atmosphere.
On the surface, a bright streak of light in the sky would have been visible for all to
see across much of what is now the United States and Mexico.
At the time, Texas was a much wetter and colder climate, and was filled with unusual creatures
which would look alien today.
These creatures included a pickup truck sized armadillo like creature called a glyptodon,
and one of the fiercest predators on the planet at the time, the giant ground sloth.
This creature had few similarities with modern sloths today.
It was 10 feet long, weighed 2200 pounds, had 17 inch long claws, and could take down
the species of lion which roamed the ancient landscape.
Many of these unusual creatures became victims of the asteroid as it hit the surface.
This impact generated a highly energetic explosion equivalent in energy to the detonation of
19,000 tons of tnt.
Much like a small nuclear blast, a superheated 600 mile per hour wind swept over the landscape.
Any trees which existed in a 2100 foot or 640 meter radius were soon flattened.
Simultaneously, a magnitude 2.8 earthquake was generated, which was large enough to make
the ground rumble upon impact in a 35 mile radius.
As a loud boom rocked over the landscape, it would later be heard by all creatures in
a 200 mile radius.
This energetic impact left behind a crater which was initially 550 feet wide and 100
feet deep.
However, over time erosion has reduced its depth, meaning that the crater as it stands
today is only 15 feet deep.
Today, Odessa Crater is the site of a small museum which is 2 miles south of a section
of the interstate 20 highway within Texas.
It contains numerous fragments of the iron meteorite which formed it, such as this 70
pound fragment.
Some of these pieces have been sliced open, revealing an intricate crystalline structure
known as a widmanstatten pattern.
In total, more than 1500 distinct meteorite fragments have been found at this impact site.
It may seem strange, but an impact of this scale is not that uncommon.
Although the vast majority of asteroids approximately 23 feet wide will completely burn up and disintegrate
in the atmosphere, a select few will reach the surface.
Thus, a similarly sized asteroid should strike a section of land on Earth about once every
250 years.
One notable recent impact event was the Tunguska event in 1908, where a 200 foot wide asteroid
exploded before reaching the surface, thus flattening 830 square miles of forest.
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