[meteorite-list] New Paper on Silverpit (Impact ??) Structure, North Sea

[Paul]

Dear Friends,

In the Journal of the Geological Society, there is a new paper on the proposed
Silverpit Impact Structure. It is:

Wall, M.L.T. , and J. Cartwright and R.J. Davies, 2008, An Eocene 
age for the proposed Silverpit Impact Crater. Journal of the Geological 
Society. vol. 165, no. 4, pp. 781-794
DOI: 10.1144/0016-76492007-138

http://ejournals.ebsco.com/Article.asp?ContributionID=1441435
http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=4ABEBE2BF6408E5C5CB6

Using seismic stratigraphy, and microfossil, including calcareous nannofossil,
data from regional wells, they dated the age of the first sediments onlapping 
into this structure. This relationship suggests that the structure is Middle 
Eocene in age. As a result, they conclude that this structure is 10 to 15 million
years younger than previous age estimates and this structure is far too young
to be associated with the K-T boundary. They also argue that the Silverpit
structure is considerably younger than when regional folding and salt 
flowage occurred. This, they argue makes it too young to have been created 
by this regional folding and salt flowage as argued by other papers.

Silverpit crater
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silverpit_crater

North Sea crater shows its scars
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4360815.stm

Yours,

Paul H.