[meteorite-list] NPA 12-14-1955 Brent Crater and Holleford Crater Found

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: Lethbridge Herald
City: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
Date: Wednesday, December 14, 1955
Pages: 1, continued on 3

The Left Hand...Corner...
Meteoric Bombardment In Remote Past Possible - Ostrich Egg Cups

TWO huge crater believed caused by meteors plunging to earth some 
500,000,000 years ago have been discovered within 100 miles of Canada's 
capital by the Dominion Observatory.
     The pre-historic pockmarks, now filled with rock and earth, are near 
Franktown, about 20 miles southwest of Ottawa, and Holleford, approximately 
20 miles northwest of Kingston, Ont. They were spotted by the observatory 
during examination of aerial photographs of Canada taken from RCAP planes at 
a height of 10,000 feet.
     The discoveries bring to five the known number of craters in Canada of 
meteoric origin.
     The most famous is the Chubb crater, now known as the new Quebec 
crater, in northern Quebec about 130 miles south of Hudson strait. Others 
were found 40 miles west of the northern Lebrador village of Hebron and in 
Algonquin national

Continued on page 3

park outside of Brent, Ont., 50 miles east of North Bay.
     The Holleford crater is about 1 1/2 miles in diameter and has a depth 
of some 100 feet - big enough to swallow up the entire downtown area of a 
medium-sized city of a couple of hundred thousand population. It is covered 
with palaeozoic sediments, estimated to be at least 500,000,000 years old, 
which have concealed most of its original shape.
     Apart from its circular shape, the only other definite evidence that 
the crater is of meteoric origin is that the inner slopes are steeper than 
the outer and no volcanic activity has been found in this section of Canada.
     "It appears that there is a definite possibility that this may be an 
ancient meteoric cavity nearly filled with sediments," Dr. C. S. Beals, 
Dominion astronomer, said in an interview. "Gravity observations tend to 
support the view that it is a depression of considerable depth filled in and 
covered with sediments."
     The Franktown crater is a vague, shallow depression with little 
topographical relief. However, it is circular with a diameter of 
three-quarters of a mile.
     Dr. Beals said the Franktown cavity also is covered with sediments 
which are at least 500,000,000 years old. However, the evidence of meteoric 
origin is not as strong as at Holleford.
     The observatory's search for meteor craters represents an extension of 
its research efforts. Some 200,000 aerial photographs of parts of Ontario 
and Quebec now have been studied and the observatory plans to examine 
photographs covering all sections of the country.
     Dr. Beals said the object of the study is to determine whether the 
earth at one time was bombarded by meteors. The information would assist 
astronomers in their studies of the universe.
     "It is well-known fact that the moon's surface is pitted with thousands 
of craters." he said. "While several theories have been put forward to 
account for their origin, the hypothesis which now is most generally 
favorized is that they were caused by meteoric bombardment thousands of 
years ago.
     "It is because of the similarity of these lunar crates to ones on earth 
that astronomers are turning attention to the possibility that at one time 
the earth may have been subjected to similar bombardment. The earth's 
atmosphere would introduce conditions causing earthly crater to be much more 
obliterated than their counterparts on the moon, and hence they have eluded 
detection."
     The Chubb crater, discovered in 1951, is two miles in diameter and is 
believed to have been caused by a meteor which crashed to earth as recently 
as 50,000 years ago. Very little is known about the crater near Hebron which 
was discovered in 1954. It is 175 yards in diameter and believed of meteoric 
origin.
     The crater near Brent is two miles in diameter and was discovered in 
1952. It is believed to have been caused by a meteor some 400,000,000 years 
ago.
     The Brent, Franktown and Holleford craters are filled with sediment. 
The Chubb crater and the small one near Hebron are not.

(end)

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
Wichita, Kansas
http://www.meteoritearticles.com
http://www.kansasmeteoritesociety.com
http://www.imca.cc

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PDF copy of this article, and most I post (and about 1/2 of those on my 
website), is available upon e-mail request.

The NPA in the subject line, stands for Newspaper Article. The old list 
server allowed us a search feature the current does not, so I guess this is 
more for quick reference and shortening the subject line now.