[meteorite-list] Marquez Dome in Texas is Actually an Impact Crater

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=110663&SecID=2

Marquez Dome is actually a crater hole
Associated Press
June 21, 2004

MARQUEZ -- Geologists say quiet pasture land in the Central Texas 
town of Marquez holds clues to the planet's violent past.

They say the site known as the Marquez Dome was once thought to be 
a salt dome by prospectors looking for oil along the Texas Gulf 
coast.

However, scientists now say the site about 60 miles southeast of 
Waco holds the remnants of a huge crater formed from an 
asteroid's impact about 58 million years ago.

University of Houston geoscience professor Arch Reid said shallow 
sea water or a marsh probably covered Marquez when it was struck 
by the asteroid. He told the Waco Tribune-Herald it left a hole 
about a mile deep and eight miles wide that was filled with rock 
over geologic time. The dome-like uplift gradually resulted from 
erosion.

Discovered in 1989, the dome has also drawn a group of University 
of Tennessee students.