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Serpent Mound Possible Site of Meteor Impact
CLEVELAND - Scientists studying recent rock samples taken from beneath an ancient earthen mound are trying to determine what caused unusually high concentrations of a metal rarely seen anywhere but near Earth's molten core or in asteroids and comets.Serpent Mound, an earthen snake effigy believed to have been built from about 1000 B.C. to A.D. 200 is about 60 miles east of Cincinnati. Some believe the 1,348-foot-long mound had a religious function for its builders, although nobody knows for sure what philosophy and beliefs shaped its origin because the mound builders left no written records. Geologists only recently discovered high concentrations of iridium 1,412 feet beneath the mound. The levels of the silver-gray metal, occasionally brought up in lava from volcanoes, measured 10 times beyond what is usually present in the Earth's crust. There's actually a little model of the "disturbed" area at the Serpent Mound site. It's roughly circular and the center is just about where Serpent Mound sits. Not as spectacular as Arizona's Meteor Crater, but, hey we Midwesterners take what we can get. Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-04-19 |
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