The Massive Asteroid Impact That Created Chesapeake Bay

[@venturelord32]

The Chesapeake Bay is such an important feature of Virginia... I'm surprised that I never learned about its meteoric origins before. Awesome fact to learn.

[@austinmj64]

Growing up in Hampton Roads we actually learned a tiny bit about the impact.

[@ThePitbulllady1]

Here is something else interesting that relates to this impact: tectite strewn fields confirmed to be linked to the CB impact event have been found on the border of South Carolina and Georgia, and as far away as Texas, half a continent away!

[@octavianova1300]

small correction: the estimated speed of the impactor was 17.9 km/s, not 179 km/s

[@carolynm9638]

Great pick up. Thank you.

[@carlzovko5802]

Nice catch - I was just about to make a similar comment as 179 km/s seemed to be excessively fast for an asteroid. Overall video was well done!

[@alanrogers7090]

I've driven over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. As you have discussed non-Australian sites before, can you make an episode about Crater Lake in Oregon? It has a unique history.❤ Glad you're back and feeling better.

[@harrietharlow9929]

Thank you for putting this up. You did a great job describing this.

[@OzGeologyOfficial]

Glad it was helpful!

[@susanread1246]

Yay you're back 😊

[@maeedwards8387]

I love watching your shows!!!!!

[@bobbiezarate2447]

Oz! This is cool as... I had No idea there was an impact crater so close to us here in North Carolina! Mind blown, Again 🤯

[@harrietharlow9929]

The East Coast of the US is more interesting geologically than many realise. Maryland even has ophiolites.

[@Draco_Alpha]

as someone who lived in this region for most of my life, i 100% appreciate the look at it's geologic history. i had no idea it was an impact crater! the coastline it created is absolutely wonderful. i lived in St. Mary's county for the better part of twenty years, and i absolutely loved how no matter where i was i could be no more than five minutes from water's edge. thank you for this!

[@ricklyle3739]

Excellent content. This is the first time I have heard of this. Keep up the good work.

[@OzGeologyOfficial]

Thanks, will do!

[@iamarizonaball2642]

@@OzGeologyOfficialwhen’s the Arizonan video coming out?

[@TheShankari33]

Very enjoyable❤

[@knightsaberami01]

YAY! We made it

[@morrismurray3621]

Just driven the Nullarbor and saw these huge cliffs that went almost from Esperance, ran parallel to the Nullarbor road for a few hundred kms and then became the Bunda Cliffs. How about an episode on what caused this huge long cliff?

[@entity_unknown_]

I live right in the center. It's Chesapeake btw, and I always wondered why there were so many meteoritic rocks

[@magicmusic8316]

I have read many books where the setting was Chesapeake Bay, and indeed one of my favourite songs from the 70's is Moonlight, feels right. One of the lyrics is Chesapeake Bay. Always fascinated me how I was drawn to that area. Well, now I know! Geology! ☺ BTW I am an Aussie!

[@arthurcutaiar9994]

The bay is indeed nice. But the mid Atlantic region is a human CESSPOOL. Something to do with an overabundance of yuppies/Demonrats and it's proximity to Washington District ofCriminals

[@1Salts1]

Just checking if you're aware of the Deniliquin Structure? If I've missed it, then let me know, if not, check it out, it's our own version of Chesapeake Bay.

[@robertboykin1828]

Just south of the Bay bridge, is [ or was ] a deep place that was named Devels hole, 110 ft deep.. I wonder if it had anything to do with it.

[@NatureGuy18]

It did. The crater is actually still forming today because of erosion. That's why the bay just suddenly drops off to over a hundred+ feet in some spots.

[@acm4213]

This area has some really interesting features related to this impact, all the way west to the edge of Richmond 90mi/144km inland. Evidence of the tsunami creating massive piles of land debris spread out in radial and ripple pattern all the way to the “Fall Line” where the land abruptly drops down from the Piedmont plateau into the flatter terrain of the Tidewater.

[@helmutzollner5496]

That is interesting. Considering the map of the Eocene the tsunami from this impact could have gone through the thefts ocean all the way to Central Asia.

[@bobflendorg1064]

Ya!

[@mpetersen6]

Why do animations of impacts always show the impactor heating up long befor us hits the atmosphere? In reality depending on the impact angle the impactor would only be in the atmospere for seconds.

[@shanascontrino5737]

So with impact theory wheres the traps on other side?

[@kenbrady119]

Thank you for showing, tacitly, how the current residents of this ecosystem with deep history are clueless about its significance.

[@robbello6207]

Thank you for your videos, please keep them up. I use to live on the Chesapeake Bay. Your pronunciation is a bit off, think... Chess A Peak. Chess like the board game.

[@OzGeologyOfficial]

Noted! Thanks!

[@GordonMyers-y1x]

Why doesn't anyone acknowledge the southeastern corner of the Hudson Bay as an impact crater? There is a circular shore and pushups in the bay.

[@georgefspicka5483]

It's not pronounced "CHEESEapeake" Bay. It's more like "CHESSapeak" :) Thanks for mentioning, because many don't know about this significant event. Some think this was responsible for the Eocene-Oligocene extinction event, roughly 33,000,000 million years ago. Also, Earth's temperature started to cool, and at about 2.6 million years ago, our planet's latest Ice-Age began.

[@OzGeologyOfficial]

Gotcha! Thanks! My bad.

[@mpetersen6]

This impact likely had nothing to do with the Quanatary Ice Age. But the Quanatary only has to with the Northern Hemisphere with minor glaciation in the south. The Southern Hemisphere has been in an Ica Age ever since around 30MYA. That's when the Circumpolar Current got established cutting off Antarctica from warm equatorial waters. The Quanatary likely got started with the rise of Panama cutting off Pacific/Atlantic circulation.

[@1pcfred]

Say cheese!

[@1pcfred]

@@OzGeologyOfficial you had the wrong kind of crabs at the end of the video too. Those are not Maryland blue claw crabs. Which is the tastiest thing on planet Earth. Hot fat crabs!

[@carolynm9638]

Love all the extra knowledge volunteered by the audience of this channel. Always a bonus.

[@Jagdtyger2A]

If Chesapeak Bay is an impact site, what about Hudson's Bay?

[@desyncer]

There is a lot of geological debate about if part of the Hudson Bay was formed by a meteor impact. Specifically, the southeastern shore of the bay, called the Nastapoka Arc with it's nearly perfectly circular shape and the Belcher Islands in the middle look like they could have formed this way. However, after it was first suggested that it could the the rim of an impact site, research found no evidence of things like shocked quartz, shatter cones, melted rocks, radial fractures or other evidence of shock metamorphism. Instead, folded strata in the area indicates it was created when two ancient cratons collided that formed a fold-and-thrust belt where the crust would split to accommodate the compression. Evidence of these folds can be found in the meta-sediments of the Belcher Islands.

[@Jagdtyger2A]

@@desyncer Thnks for the info

[@harrietharlow9929]

@@desyncer The Nastapoka Arc definitely is a strange feature. I'm interested the the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt near the northern end of the arc and in spite of the current consensus (which is probably right), I have to wonder about compressional forces forming a very nearly-perfect semicircle. But hey--I'm weird. I find Archean cratons fascinating.

[@No_Fuse8771]

I can't tell if you are saying cheesespeak bay, or Chesapeake bay, either way, I'm calling it cheesespeak bay from now on. Great video as always my guy. 👍 [EDIT] Let me add, I'm hard of hearing.

[@1pcfred]

Get someone from Baltimore to say the word, "home". It's so funny! They like sing it.

[@carolynm9638]

Sounds like the locals are pronouncing it Chesapeake (chess), which is what you’d expect from the spelling. 😊

[@davemeeks8109]

When was this impact. 😊

[@oskarsrode2167]

I am absolutely sure that the Gulf of Riga must be an asteroid hitting at a shallow angle from Riga towards N-NW with a rebound in the midle where the island of Ruhnu now lies. Of course it could be a volcano crater, but it is a bit too elongated for that. Unfortunately, I can only find depth charts and nothing about the layers.

[@108doublestitches]

We don't learn about it in Norfolk public school. We only gotta take EID class to graduate.

[@tyler5784]

i’m a virginia beach native and have never heard of this, this is fascinating!

[@ericjohnson9468]

‘BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS’… not ‘Blue Mountains’…

[@OzGeologyOfficial]

Thanks for clarifying.

[@myleskgallagher]

"What we now know as the Cheese-Ah-Peeg Bay" ........I dunno what you know it as, but that ain't it for us 😂

[@1pcfred]

Those aren't Maryland blue claw crabs. It is pronounced chess a peak. If you said cheese a peak folks would look at you funny here.

[@kevincinnamontoast3669]

Mmm, cheese a peak bay.

[@OzGeologyOfficial]

😂😂

[@tymcfadden8496]

It's "chess-a-peak" not "cheese-a-peak".

[@OzGeologyOfficial]

Yup, that's my bad. Lesson learned haha.

[@jacobwatts202]

I live in Virginia and never knew this

[@cerberus2881]

Pronounced: Chess-a-peake.

[@robertcook5201]

Could have been better, not your best effort