The Beaverhead Asteroid

A Massive Bolide That Impacted Central Idaho

Introduction: In June of 1998 the KT boundary was sampled near Brownie Butte, in Garfield County, Montana. The sample site location was Latitude 47 31' 48.6" N., Longitude 107 00' 29.2" W. The KT boundary at this

location is comprised of a white colored layer overlain by a tan colored layer with the "z" coal layer above. The white colored layer has been determined to be volcanic ash, and the tan colored layer has been determined to be proximal ejecta from the Beaverhead impact event1. The tan colored
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layer and the "z" coal layer contain the anomalously high concentrations of platinum group elements, including iridium. Recent work by Paul R. Renne, et al, has established an age on these layers at 66.043 MYA 2. This date will be used within this treatise for the KT boundary, and the Beaverhead impact event. The age of all other events will be adjusted to their relationship to the KT boundary. The volcanic ash at the KT boundary may well have come from the Deccan Traps in India. Volcanism at the Deccan Traps began about 2.5 million years before the KT mass extinction, and lasted for hundreds of thousands of years after this event3. The sheer magnitude of this volcanic event had a devastating impact on the ecological environment, and has been shown to be a major contributor to the Cretaceous mass extinction4. The final triggering mechanism for the extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period had to have been an asteroid impact event, for this is the evidence discovered in the KT boundary sediments at Hell Creek. Earth has undergone many impacts from asteroids without suffering this kind of mass extinction, so what made the Beaverhead asteroid impact event so unique. The probable cause of why this impact event was so devastating is that the asteroid was very large. Dewey McLean had a quote from Albert Einstein in his paper on The Deccan Traps

Volcanism Dinosaur Extinction Theory that is appropriate for this treatise: "To elementary laws there leads no logical path, but only intuition, supported by being sympathetically in touch with experience". As the Beaverhead asteroid impact event is explored many of the ideas expressed can be conjectural. It is understood that calculations are based on modeling, and supported only by limited geological evidence. The Beaverhead Asteroid: A paper by Jennifer Carr and Paul Karl Link indicates that strong magnetic and gravitational anomalies exist in an area south of Challis, Idaho 5. This location is at Latitude 44 15' 00" N.; Longitude 114 12' 02.54" W., and this point will be considered the center of the Beaverhead impact crater. The distance between this crater center point and the sample site location where proximal ejecta was discovered in Garfield County, Montana, is 413.38 miles. An arbitrary boundary between the proximal ejecta of an impact crater, and the distal ejecta of the impact crater, has been found to be 6 times the radius of the final crater from the center point 6. The sample site in Garfield County, Montana was a random selection, and therefore should not be considered the maximum distance from the crater center that proximal ejecta could have traveled, but rather a location within the field of proximal ejecta deposits. The distance of 413.38 miles divided by 6 is 68.90 miles, and this defines the distance
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that the radius of the final Beaverhead impact crater must exceed by some amount. The Beaverhead asteroid impact crater has a shattercone field located near Island Butte, Montana. This field was discovered by Rob Hargraves, Princeton University, in 1989 7. Island Butte is located at Latitude 44 36' 45" N., Longitude 112 58' 04" W., and is 64.01 miles from the center point of the impact crater. Shattercones form in areas where the shock pressure is >2 GPa and < 30 GPa8. This pressure range is normally below the crater floor, but a unique area where this can occur is near the lip of the transient crater where the pressure is reduced to approximately 2 GPa ( 290075 psi ) due to excavation. The shattercone field can provide a strong indication that the Beaverhead transient crater has a radius of about 64.01 miles. The Beaverhead asteroid impacted earth at the end of the Cretaceous period, and the impact location was in the shallow Cretaceous sea 9. The evidence presented by Tim McElvain indicates the sea may have been about 500m deep, overlain with sedimentary deposits, and crystalline rock below. The modeling program that is used herein will only consider the 500m of water over crystalline rock. The hydraulic surge and resurge of the sea will have a substantial effect on the final impact crater.

The establishment of these facts, as a given, will allow modeling of the asteroid impact event. A very useful tool for this task is the program by Robert Marcus, H. Jay Melosh, and Gareth Collins called "Earth Impact Effects Program". The model was produced using the following given parameters: Projectile Diameter: 35.40 km ( = 22 miles ) Projectile Density: 3000 kg/m Impact Velocity: 21.00 km per second Impact Angle: 80 ( 90 = vertical ) Target Density: 1000 km/m Target Type: Liquid water of depth 500.0 meters ( = 1640 feet ), over crystalline rock. The projectile is assumed to be a spheroid. The energy that this asteroid would have before atmospheric entry is 3.67 x 10 Mega Tons TNT. An event such as this happens on Earth about once in 2.5 billion years. The Earth will not be strongly disturbed by the impact and will lose negligible mass. The impact does not make a noticeable change in the tilt of the Earth's axis. The impact may cause a change in the length of a day on Earth of up to 19.9 milliseconds. The Earth's orbit will not noticeably shift because of the impact. The crater created by this impact event has been elusive, but evidence does exist. The calculated results from the above modeling will give the following crater dimensions: The crater opened in the water has a diameter of 334 km ( = 207 miles ).

For the crater formed in the seafloor: Transient Crater Diameter: 204 km ( = 126 miles ). Transient Crater Depth: 72 km (=44.7 miles) Final Crater Diameter: 409 km ( = 254 miles) Final Crater Depth: 1.81 km ( = 1.12 miles ). The crater formed is a complex crater. The volume of the target rock melted or vaporized is 133000 km ( = 31900 miles ). Roughly half of the melt remains in the crater. The radius of the final crater in our model is 127 miles. Six times this radius is 762 miles which could be considered the maximum distance the proximal ejecta from this impact event would travel from the center of the impact crater. Our sample site at the KT boundary in Garfield County, Montana is at 413.38 miles which is well within the proximal ejecta field. This element of our discovery fits the above model, and can be considered satisfied. The second element of discovery that has been presented is the shattercone field at Island Butte, Montana. The Island Butte location is 64.01 miles from the center of the impact crater, and has been shown to be near the lip of the transient crater. The transient crater in the model has a diameter of 126 miles, which would be

a radius of 63 miles. Shattercone forming one mile outside the lip of the model transient crater is well within the allowable parameters, and so this element has also been satisfied. The Google Earth aerial photograph image on the title page of this treatise has the final impact crater clearly marked with red stick pins. The outline of the impact crater is visually clear in the physical geological terrain shown in the photograph. The Beaverhead asteroid was a massive bolide moving at about 68,897 feet per second when it impacted Earth. This is more than twenty three times the speed of a rifle bullet. The sheer energy release in this kind of an event is devastating. It is very probable that this force caused weak planes to develop in the Earth's crust near the crater area. The weak plane will over time develop stress, and when strain forms a

fault will occur. The hereinbefore image is a geological map by the State of Idaho that shows active faults within Idaho. An active fault exists along an alignment that almost perfectly matches the impact crater rim that was modeled. This is a strong indication that the impact crater for the Beaverhead asteroid, as modeled, is correct. Faulting in the Earth's crust normally occurs along an alignment that is straight, or jagged with branching elements. The fault in the hereinbefore image is curved, and is continuous in Idaho for over four hundred miles. This is very unique, and is a further indication that this faulting is a reflective crack from the weak plane caused by the asteroid impact. There are additional geological elements that demand review to determine the possible influence that the Beaverhead asteroid impact had over them. The most prominent of these is the thrusting, in an easterly direction, of massive blocks of rock during the Cretaceous period. This event occurred in southwesterly Montana, and was thought to be caused by great pressure brought on by the Rocky Mountain folds. The enormous pressure brought on by the Beaverhead asteroid impact may well have caused these blocks of rock to shear from the continental plate, and thrust to the east. This thrusting may have occurred because of the asteroid impact force alone, or in combination with the pressure brought on by the Rocky Mountains.

Another geological occurrence that could have been influenced by the Beaverhead impact event is the Columbia basalt flood that begins about 17.5 MYA and lasted until about 6 MYA. This lava flow came from fissures that opened in western Idaho, and eastern Washington and Oregon. This is a very close alignment to the western rim of the final impact crater, and the faulting shown on the previous mapping image of Idaho. The fissures may well have developed from weaknesses in the rock caused by the Beaverhead asteroid impact. It has been estimated that about 41,000 miles of basaltic lava flowed from these fissures all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The volcanism of the Deccan Traps played a significant role in the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period. The second phase of the Deccan Traps volcanism, in which 80% of the volcanic discharge occurred happened at the same time as the KT boundary was formed 10. The dating of this event is 66.043 MYA based on the adjusted time from the KT boundary within this treatise. The discovery of proximal ejecta from the Beaverhead asteroid impact event at the KT boundary in Garfield County, Montana fixes the date of this event at 66.043 MYA as well. The tan colored layer of the KT boundary sediments is the proximal ejecta, and because it is over the volcanic ash at this boundary, establishes this event as the final killer in this mass extinction.
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The Chicxulub asteroid impact event preceded the Beaverhead asteroid, and the KT boundary by about 100,000 years 11. The Yaxcopoil 1 deep core drill in the Chicxulub crater found 50 cm of Dolomite rock between the evidence of the Chicxulub impact, and the KT boundary. These rock layers represent a span of time between these two events that could exceed the 100,000 years stated. The frequency in which an asteroid the size of our Beaverhead asteroid model should impact Earth is once in 2.5 billion years, so having only 100,000 years between these two events is important, and points to multiple bolides impacting Earth near the same time. There are at least three other asteroid impact events that are known to have occurred near the time of the KT mass extinction, and they are: Boltysh asteroid impact, in the Ukraine; Vista Alegre, in Brazil; and Eagle Butte, in Canada. These impact events happened after the KT by some amount of time, and were much smaller in size than the Chicxulub, or Beaverhead events. Geologists are developing much better techniques for dating geological events such as these, and as this information becomes more available the events leading up to the KT boundary will become clear.

Conclusion: The Beaverhead asteroid was massive, and the destruction it caused was long lasting. Our model is a chondrite asteroid that is a perfect spheroid, and it fits the known geological evidence, but it is understood that the actual asteroid would differ from this model. The modeling used in this treatise is a very useful tool to establish the parameters for further study. There can be little doubt that the Beaverhead asteroid impact event was the final killer in the mass extinction that took place at the end of the Cretaceous period, but it must be remembered that the Deccan Traps volcanism was ongoing throughout these impact events. Asteroid impact events take place in a very short interval of time, but their effects are long lasting. It would be a wise decision to include the study of the Beaverhead asteroid within the curriculum of a university, because of its massive effect on the geological environment. Experimentation leads science to new facts, but intuition moves these new facts into creative reality.

Q.E.D. ******************************

References:
An Investigation of the Cretaceous Impact of the Beaverhead Asteroid, including Addendum No. 1. http://www.scribd.com/doc/151387134/An-Investigation-of-the-Cretaceous-Impact-of-the-Beaverhead-Asteroid. 2 Paul R. Renne, Alan L. Deino, Frederik J. Hilgen, Klaudia F. Kuiper, Darren F. Mark, William S. Mitchell III, Leah E. Morgan, Roland Mundil, and JanSmit; Time Scales of Critical Events Around the Cretaceous Paleogene Boundary. February 2013. 3 Dewey McLean; The Deccan Traps Volcanism Dinosaur Extinction Theory. 4 See number 3 above. 5 Jennifer Carr and Paul Karl Link; Neoproterozoic Conglomerate and Breccia in the Formation of Leaton Glulch, Grouse Peak, northern Lost River Range, Idaho; Relation to Beaverhead Impact Structure. 6 Bevan M. French; Traces of Catastrophe. PP 78. 7 Hargraves, R.B., Cullicott, C.E., Deffeyes, K.S., Hougen, S.B., Christiansen, P.P., and Fiske, P.S., 1990, Shatter cones and shocked rocks in southwestern Montana: The Beaverhead impact structure: Geology, v. 18, p. 832 834. 8 Bevan M. French; Traces of Catastrophe. Pp36. 9 Tim McElvain; research access: http://www.scribd.com/doc/64688992/Beaverhead-Impact-Crater-K-T-BoundaryEvent. 10 See number 3 above. 11 Gerta Keller, Princeton University, correspondence regarding the Beaverhead impact event.
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