--- In nm_astronomy@yahoogroups.com, "Rich Murray" <rmforall@...> wrote:
>
> widespread Carolina Bay type craters from Clovis comet 12,900 Ya BP? -- 0.7
> M long NS crater with fractured red sandstone on SW rim, CR C 53A, 20 miles
> E of Las Vegas, NM: Rich Murray 2009.06.08
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AstroDeep/27
>
> Google Maps Satellite image link:
>
<http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Las+Vegas,+New+Mexi\
co&sll=35.587894,-105.919641&sspn=0.000612,0.001608&ie=UTF8&ll=35.614186,-104.82\
7251&spn=0.078289,0.205822&t=h&z=13>
>
> I hope to arouse intense curiosity about the many rather obvious crater
> fields of shallow impacts with a fractal distribution of sizes, that I've
> scouted within a hundred miles of Santa Fe. Google Maps and Google Earth
> make it easy to locate many such fields in the Northern Hemisphere.
>
> The one in the center of this image has a small white rock quarry, about 2
> decades old, used for making the road, right at the edge of County Road C
> 53A, about 20 miles east of Las Vegas, New Mexico. It is unfenced, with no
> warning signs and no livestock, so it is unusually easy to inspect at
> leisure.
>
> Fields of craters like these are readily found with Google Earth and Google
> Maps all the way west along State Road 104 to the center of Las Vegas.
> Overall, the terrain is somewhat eroded flat red sandstone bedrock.
>
> It is easy to walk along the SW edge of this crater and see that the flat
> red sandstone bedrock is progressively exposed, cracked, and shattered into
> 1-2 m size blocks, while the center is a few meters deeper, with a cow
> wallow of damp, black, sandy soil, between two small NS ridges of dark sandy
> material. I have samples, if someone can find a lab that will determine the
> chemistry and isotopes at an affordable price, ie, free?
>
...

My other hobby besides astronomy is caving and cave science.

While I haven't checked out the area you're talking about, consider that there
is a large gypsum karst area running through the eastern edge of the state.
There, sinkholes are created by water running through cracks in limestone and
sandstone, that undermine the upper layers and cause sinkholes. The aerial
photos may well be impacts, but I think sinkholes are more likely.

Pat O'Connell

> In mutual service, Rich Murray
>
> Rich Murray, MA 1967 (psychology), MIT BS 1964, history and physics,
> 1943 Otowi Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505
> 505-501-2298 rmforall@...
>
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