Tomanowos – Meteorite That Hit The Ice Cap
I share a new ancient history news article that got me caught up on an interesting story. I share the new report and my thoughts on the Tomanowos (Willamette) Meteorite. They say it hit the ice cap in 15,000BC and was transported to Oregon in an Ice Age Flood about 13,000 years ago.
The Younger Dryas event happened about 12,900 years ago . Is this the WHOLE story?
Wkipedia tells us:
The Willamette Meteorite, officially named Willamette[3] and originally known as Tomanowos by the Clackamas Chinooks[4][5] native american tribe is an iron-nickel meteorite found in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the largest meteorite found in North America and the sixth largest in the world.[6][7]
There was no impact crater at the discovery site; researchers believe the meteorite landed in what is now Canada or Montana, and was transported as a glacial erratic to the Willamette Valley during the Missoula Floods at the end of the last Ice Age (~13,000 years ago).[8]
Emplacement and erosion
Glacial Lake Columbia (west) and Glacial Lake Missoula (east, in blue) were south of Cordilleran Ice Sheet. The areas inundated in the Columbia and Missoula Floods are shown in red. The meteorite was rafted by the floods embedded inside an ice block.
The lack of an impact crater at the discovery site was only explained after the 1920s, with the new understanding about the Missoula Floods, one of the largest floods documented, caused by the collapse of an ice barrier during the last deglaciation.
The meteorite presumably landed on an ice cap in what is now Montana or western Canada, and was dragged by the glacier ice to the vicinity of an ice barrier that formed across the Clark Fork River. This barrier had ponded a huge amount of water at the Lake Missoula right at the time when the meteorite reached the area and the ice barrier became unstable and breached. The resulting flood involved up to 10 million cubic meters per second of water discharge, with large blocks of ice rafting down the Columbia River and the Willamette Valley at the end of the last Ice Age (~13,000 years ago).[8]
Some of these ice rafts included boulders (known as glacial erratics by geologists) like the Willamette meteorite, which eventually sank in the flood waters and settled where they were found by humans.
The deep crevasses of the meteorite resulted from both its high-speed atmospheric entry and its subsequent weathering. Exposed to the elements for thousands of years, rainwater interacted with the mineral troilite, resulting in a form of sulfuric acid which slowly dissolved portions of the meteorite. This resulted in the gradual development of the hollows that are visible today.
The meteorite is on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, which acquired it in 1906.[7] Having been seen by an estimated 40 million people over the years, and given its striking appearance, it is among the most famous meteorites
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