Background
Why is there no Wackywiki article about this most unique impact on earth? You are truly not missing anything except wrong information you would then have to unlearn. Like disinformation. Why does this information not come up on a Googie Search? Google is a cyclone in a cemetery reading tome stones for the dead. Cache that.
This image is from: http://tnlandforms.us/landforms/m.php?wpt=STX001
The Howell, Tennessee
Impact Structure Hall of Fame or Shame?
Previous studies: The Howell Structure was
discovered by Dr. J. W. Young of Fayetteville, TN who brought it to the attention of the Tennessee Division of Geology (TDG) in 1934. Born and Wilson responded, and started mapping, publishing in 1937. You can read this article at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/30059702?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
Although they rejected the salt dome idea popular at the time Howell eluded their ability to conjecture a cause. They were sure a violent explosion had taken place. These guys were excellent with strata study and map making yet failed miserably at crater mapping. This is the map they made.
Let me point out the obvious about earth impact study. Shoemaker and Roddy came to TN and did years of study and got approved craters. Howell has received 2 weeks from the original investigators, 2 months by Woodruff, and 2 days by all the rest until myself. Is it any wonder they did not accomplish a crater id? I have now spent 4 years of which almost 2 is field work.
So what went wrong? Crater study on a self healing planet is not anything they were trained for. The only example they had was Well's Creek which was much later and hit at a normal angle not so oblique. (The origin of the Wells Creek structure was controversial, and was interpreted as being either the result of volcanic steam explosion or meteorite impact. It was only in the 1960s that Wilson and Stearns were able to state that the impact hypothesis was preferred. Evidence for a Wells Creek meteorite impact includes drill core results, extreme brecciation and shatter cones, while a local lack of volcanic material is telling. from http://craterexplorer.ca/wells-creek-impact-structure/ )
To this day geologist will show up and look for a small "crater circle", not find, and go home disappointed. Large craters need to be viewed from space like this one which covers six counties and two states. Hills are inside the crater as a kinetic explosion is more of a ripping explosion than the chemical or nuclear bomb bowl. The bowl craters are usually smaller more direct hits not oblique. Also craters are modified by subsequent events like a sea washing back into it. There was a huge wash back into the basin and streams have broken through the crater wall traversing it's interior edges. This illustrates some of the shortcomings of strata theory. In 1964-65 (updated in 73) Wilson and Barns made the map above.
Note the unusual faults inside and outside their proposed crater. Also note the poor definition of any crater structure to the west and north. In 1967 Dr. Wilson of Vanderbilt University sent Woodruff to investigate.
In 1968, Charles Marsh Woodruff, Jr., turned in his thesis research on the Howell Structure to deter-
mine the geographic and stratigraphic limits of the
deformed rocks of the structure and to re-assess its
age. He found an interesting strata between the Silurian (Brassfield) (see section in Technical Notes on this locally fading edge strata https://www.hillbillyu.com/chert-plum-pudding ) and the Devonian Chattanooga Shale of "a mixed zone of chert, sand, various sulfides, and possibly even carbonaceous shale material. Petrographic study shows planar features cutting across quartz grain boundaries, and the possible presence of glass, and/or isotropized quartz." Woodruff spent a lot of time on the east edge which is the actual crater wall but he had no idea the tremendous rising hill to the east was all a crater wall.
He moved to TX and teaches geology at the University of TX Austin. http://www.caee.utexas.edu/faculty/directory/woodruff
During the mid-1960s, a team led by John W. Bensko, a lunar geologist at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Research Projects Division drilled a test core hole in the center of the
Howell Structure. Bensko verbally informed Woodruff that the drill hole penetrated past the breccias into undisturbed bedrock, and that there was a zone of gradation between the breccias and the normal bed-
rock. No additional information is known, since the results from the drilling effort were never published and are no longer at Marshall. This was important because geology was still debating if meteor impact or volcanoes caused earth anomalies like at Howell.
Part of the above is from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242696463_THE_HOWELL_STRUCTURE_LINCOLN_COUNTY_TENNESSEE_A_REVIEW_OF_PAST_AND
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Howell fault one to the right is outside the proposed crater? See the picture to the left of the Well's Creek Crater a more recent hit. Notice the Howell faults are all radial indicating not crater wall. Howell has a series of arc faults you just have to zoom out 60 miles to see. So why have this dotted line crater? The mapping studies have never claimed to have found a western edge? What kind of intellectual honesty is this?
This outside fault is in the direct line where I found the shatter cone boulder!
Notice the ? for edge limits. Yet they launch a basis for all future studies to accept a mile diameter as fact.
More ? between strata. What does that mean?
There is really as much to learn about the inherent structural support failure of so called science as there is about the crater itself.
Foundation-ally the rules or so called laws of geology are wrong and badly applied. Uniformity "all yesterdays are like today." Who could possibly find that to be true? Were all your yesterdays like today? Good tools are not applied like faults and impacts.
In 2004 a new team published this short report.
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2004/pdf/1692.pdf
In 2005 the drill cores were found and analysed.
https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2015/pdf/2455.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2ufsTyXeOjGlFWvVkK00mGbVppp-1dM3F2v1TWYZl3neUkZovF6ulkfos
BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PETROLEUM GEOLOGISTS VOl:; 32. NO.1 (JANUARY. 1948), PP .145-147, I FIG.
MEMORIAL
KENDALL EUGENE BORN (1908-1947)
Kendall E. Born was teaching geology at Missouri School of Mines, Rolla, Missouri, at the time of his death, September 21, 1947, but it was during his long association with the Tennessee Division of Geology that the personal and professional contacts were made that resulted in his widespread acquaintances and reputation in geological circles. He died at the Missouri Baptist Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, and was buried in his home town of Chester, Illinois. His early school work was done in Chester where he was born, February 15,1908. In 1930 he graduated from McKendree College, Lebanon, Illinois, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. He attended Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, receiving the Master of Science degree in 1931, presenting a report on the brown iron ore of the Western Highland Rim for his thesis.
Dr. Young was trained as a dentist and minored in geology at Vanderbilt. He developed oil and gas fields in Lincoln, County in the 1920's, which was a relatively big strike for TN but played out in a decade. He was working for TVA when he died.
His father J. W. Young Sr. rode with General Nathan Bedford Forrest 1st TN Cavalry, fought at Shiloh captured at Nashville and was a Major and Quartermaster.
In 1900 an oil and gas well was tried at Petersburg which kept losing tools at 1000 feet and abandoned. This may be the shattered and brecciated zone edge from the Middle, TN Basin forming impact. Since the Highland Rims are the crater walls for that event a thousand feet is not unreasonable if you are drilling through that wall. However what is curious is that the Howell/Petersburg impact was a sliding touch down explosion just a few miles north of Petersburg and you would think a lot of the previous crater wall would have been removed. Alas the washback fills the depression. Would be interesting to know what the drill log was for this well.
Also if you think about it the three shock wave faults stretching west at 10 mile intervals would indicate a shock wave belt under the impact. As is typical of craters a thousand feet under Petersburg would be about right so this drill tool losing zone is most likely the crater breccia zone from the Frankewing, TN impact.
Talk about something strange. The 1960's were the high point for TN geology; now that is contrary to evolution!
The brown iron ore of the Western Highland Rim which is actually the crater rim of the Basin Buster Impact was studied in detail in 1927 and you can read this report online. Is kinda long but hey I read it more than once. https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0795d/report.pdf
Crater water well anomalies. Pulaski, TN went 1,700 feet and did not get water. Another well at Baugh, in southeastern Giles County, over 350 feet deep, was also dry and was used for a cistern. This well started in Catheys (?) limestone and probably went into the Lowville limestone or possibly farther. Such localities probably represent areas in which the jointing of the rock is not well developed, and the failure to get water probably cannot be correlated even indirectly with the stratigraphy. ** Piper, A. M., Ground water in nortb-eentral Tennessee: U. S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 640, p. 61,1932. This is where I live. It is a double hit crater with Silurian strata exposed. It has springs and wells at 35 feet. It has a lake over it that leaks.
Shocked fossil shell soup. At Howell the shock force melted the limestone and fossil shells all collect up. Strange, but Howell is a crater edge and edge effects are strange, also very interesting.
Ignorance Cascade - All of Middle, TN is a crater debris field with two very large hits and multiple smaller ones. So since there is no understanding of that it would be just baffling to understand a complex overlapping crater signature.
If you have not seen footage of the Chelyabinsk meteor streaking on a low angle for earth impact you should. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBLjB5qavxY
The Frankewing, TN impact was an even lower angle earth entry and much faster, very big and dense. Howell, TN is just an upturned breccia liner edge at the bottom of a crater wall. The crater is 34 by 25 miles but the highest exposed energy of the explosion was distributed where vaporization occurred. Very oblique hits have many strange consequences. Here is an article discussing Earth, Moon planet formation and such a collision. https://www.space.com/34562-moon-mysterious-tilt-explained-by-impact.html
The greatest significance of the Frankewing, TN impact may well be it's effect on counter rotation of the earth! Which is what time is based on, a time expander.
In 2015 a new team took up the challenge but were unable to reach a team conclusion. At Howell you will see things like coral and shell soup mixed in with all the breccia and mega clast. It is confusing and does not support the one mile diameter impact. All red herrings considering the easy academic approach is to find shatter cones and shock glass.
J.R.H. Ford Faculty of Sciences, University of Southern Queensland, West Street, Toowoomba 4350, Australia, and National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, 191 Huay Kaew Road, Suthep District, Muang, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand, and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37132, USA. Email: jford@mtsu.edu
Wayne Orchiston National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, 191 Huay Kaew Road, Suthep District, Muang, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand. E-mail: Wayne.Orchiston@narit.or.th and
Ron Clendening Tennessee Division of Geology, 13th Floor, L & C Tower, 401 Church Street, Nashville, Tennessee 37243, USA, and Faculty of Sciences, University of Southern Queensland, West Street, Toowoomba 4350, Australia. Email: ron.clendening@tn.gov
You can read this study at: http://www.narit.or.th/en/files/2015JAHHvol18/2015JAHH...18...65F.pdf
So why has almost a century of investigation about the Howell, TN Impact Crater failed? A Systems analysis:
So called science isn't. It is a political exercise. Like the flawed algorithm used by Google to do searches it uses quantity of old referencing. This means the initial observation and analysis is a popularity vote. The more true discovery it contains the less likely to be accepted. That is not science; it is the modern day equivalent of the thousand year reign of body humors practiced harmfully by doctors. To illustrate this point the latest academic publication and google search results on the Howell Meteor boast the most referencing and the least field work. It is like a doctor reading old charts, spending a few minutes with the patient and concluding with a non diagnosis. This new research does not appear in the google so called search results. There is a direct relationship between field work and correct analysis. (Unless you are Einstein, then you do thought experiments but he did a lot of that, LOL) Field work is science and precedes analysis. Besides Born & Wilson, Woodruff did the most field work and was not published but made the best analysis. My field work is many times that of Woodruff. Analysis of your field work is science. Referencing flawed past articles only serves to perpetuate non science or nonsense but will get you the most popularity. It is contrary to discovery. The Howell impact site from the beginning has always contained easy to find impact breccia. These specimens are distinctive and indicators of an meteor impact. Failure to discover shatter cones does not preclude meteor impact. A less striated higher energy shatter cone is present at Howell. ( you can see them in the tech notes section under shatter cones) Shatter coning is the safest academic way to declare a site a meteor strike even though you can make shatter cones with explosives. The breccia however records the event more fully and are too complex to fake. And lets not even talk about the giant mega clast you see at Howell. These large metamorphic boulders surround the Howell area for many miles. The entire body of published work is off center, as Howell is not the crater center just an edge. What is the center of a traveling explosion? The highest energy effects are scattered over a vast area. The crater center is more around Frankewing, TN but you will find less energy effects there. Crowd logic is not logic, just herd behavior. The collective missed discovery is astounding really.
(Earth impact craters are certified by an agency in Canada, which has invested nothing in this U.S crater i. e. again a political process. The only two certified craters in TN were done so with a high amount of outstanding field work by the way. Out of state NASA connected big guns like Shoemaker and his pupil Roddy)
Shocked coral head bathed in iron.
Mega clast with quartz thin plane insertion. It is a high speed effect whipping out melted sand into quartz thin streams that insert into semi-liquid limestone often moving one half a few millimeters in relation to the other half of the rock.
Body humors and geology. The tool set of geology is identically flawed. If you are truly curious about the geology of your area I suggest you investigate it yourself. I could not find any reasonable explanations coming from geologist about my area. Also you will find an absence of true inquiry and discussion which is why they don't break free as medicine finally did.
Historic geologist - https://www.hillbillyu.com/ray-ben-craterwalker-comics
Historical footnote: What would it have been like to be Wilson in the late 1930's at Howell, TN.
Not even an associate professor yet, during the Great Depression Charles Wilson arrives at a very unusual crater at Howell, TN at a time when it was being debated if the earth has any impact craters. The head of the US Geological Survey stated that the moon has impact craters but not the earth.
Memorial to Charles William Wilson, Jr. 1905-1985 Richard G. Stearns Geology Department, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235 On June 21, 1985. after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, Charles W. Wilson, Jr., professor and geologist, died in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 79 years. He was born September 6, 1905, in Mayfield, Kentucky. After graduating from Mayfield High School, he received his B.A. in 1927 and M.S. in 1928 from Vanderbilt University, where he was captain of the track team and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. In 1931 he received his Ph.D. from Princeton University, whereupon he returned to Vanderbilt University in September 1931 and taught for 41 years. He became an associate professor in 1940 and full professor in 1946. The only break in his teaching career was a two-year leave to work with the War Production Board during the latter part of World War II. From 1930 to World War II. he was active in the Yellowstone-Big Horn Research Association of Wyoming and Montana. This research brought him fame as a geologist, and it also led him to his wife of 50 years, Barbara Bookman Wilson. Wilson is survived by his widow; two sons, Charles William Wilson III, a mathematician, and John Morris Wilson, a geologist; a daughter, Kathryn Ann Wilson, an executive secretary; and by 9 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. The summer 1947 issue of the Vanderbilt Alumnus said, “His family constitutes one third of his life, academic and professional work make up a second third, and the final third is his hobby—geology.” Because the geology department had only two faculty members for many years, Wilson usually taught three courses each semester, most with a laboratory. All of his students experienced a thorough, demanding course, made pleasant by his kindly humor. While teaching so many courses, he continually made progress in his research, beginning his working days early and ending them late. He was a prolific scholar, concentrating on lines of activity that included or were related to geologic mapping I first met Wilson when I was an undergraduate student in 1947; I worked as his field assistant in mapping. During that time I learned how fast he could move. In college he was a runner; as a professional geologist, “power walker” might be an accurate description of his progress. His students accused him of hitting rocks with his hammer as he walked, as a polo player hits the ball, then identifying the rock fragments in mid-air. This is not much of an exaggeration, although he did pore over samples when he needed to. His avowed goal, which he achieved after about 40 years, was to personally map each of the 120 7'/4-minute quadrangles in the central basin of Tennessee. Charlie actually produced about 200 geologic maps, many with co-workers whom he trained in mapping. Lest the reader believe he only did mapping, it should be added that Wilson produced 10 books and about 50 articles on varied topics, including stratigraphy, structure, systematic paleontology, and the impact of meteors. His stratigraphic work
2 THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA remains the standard for our region. He was a pioneer in our understanding of the structure of the region, and was one of the few early researchers of meteor impact structures. Two special contributions to Tennessee geology are his annotated bibliographies. Most researchers interested in the geology of Tennessee still find useful beginnings in these works. Wilson worked many years with the Tennessee Division of Geology as a consultant. Most of his mapping in Tennessee and many of his other projects were supported or published by that agency. Indeed, after his retirement, he worked full-time with the Division until he was 70 years old. He was also a consultant for other organizations, including The California Company. General Shale Products Corporation, and Tennessee Valley Authority. Wilson was always proud of his association with the Geological Society of America, and to have been elected a Fellow in 1937. He was one of the founders of the Southeastern Mineral Symposium, later the Southeastern Section of the Geological Society of America. He served as secretary of the new section during three of its formative years. His scientific and professional memberships included the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, American Geophysical Union, Paleontological Society, American Commission on Stratigraphie Nomenclature, Tennessee Academy of Science, and Sigma Xi.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF C. W. WILSON, JR. 1933 Fauna of the McAlester shale, Pennsylvanian, of Muskogee County, Oklahoma: Journal of Paleontology, v. 7, p. 412-422. 1935 The Great Smoky thrust fault in the vicinity of Tuckaleeche, Wear, and Cades coves, Blount and Sevier counties, Tennessee: Tennessee Academy of Science Journal, v. 10, p. 57-63. ____ The pre-Chattanooga development of the Nashville dome: Journal of Geology, v. 43, p. 449-481. ____ The ostracode fauna of the Birdsong Shale, Helderberg of western Tennessee: Journal of Geology, v. 44, p. 815-835. 1936 Geology of the Nye-Bowler lineament, Stillwater and Carbon counties, Montana: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 20, p. 1161—1188. ____ (and Born, K. E.) The Flynn Creek disturbance, Jackson County, Tennessee: Journal of Geology, v. 44, p. 815-835. 1937 (and Newell, N. D.) Geology of the Muskogee-Porum district, Muskogee and McIntosh counties, Oklahoma: Oklahoma Geological Survey Bulletin, no. 57, 184 p. 1938 The Tensleep fault, Johnson and Washakie counties, Wyoming: Journal of Geology, v. 46, p. 868-881. 1939 Probable connection of the Nashville and Ozark domes by a complementary arch: Journal of Geology, v. 47, p. 583-597. 1948 The geology of Nashville, Tennessee: Tennessee Division of Geology Bulletin, no. 53. 172 p. 1949 Pre-Chattanooga stratigraphy in Central Tennessee: Tennessee Division of Geology Bulletin, no. 56, 407 p. 1950 Geologic map of Central Tennessee: Tennessee Division of Geology, 13 sheets, scale 1:63,360.
MEMORIAL TO CHARLES WILLIAM WILSON 3 1953 Wilcox desposits in explosion craters, Stewart County, Tennessee: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 64, p. 753-768. ____ Annotated bibliography of the geology of Tennessee through December, 1950: Tennessee Division of Geology Bulletin, no. 59, 308 p. 1956 (and Jewell, J. W., and Luther, E. T.) Pennsylvanian geology of the Cumberland Plateau: Tennessee Division of Geology Folio, 21 p., contains structure and geologic maps, scale 1:250,000. 1958 (and Stearns, R. G.) Structure of the Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 69. p. 1283-1296. 1961 (with others) Geologic map of the Beartooth Mountains. Montana and Wyoming: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 47, p. 1143. 1968 (and Stearns, R. G.) Geology of the Wells Creek Structure, Tennessee: Tennessee Division of Geology Bulletin, no. 68, 236 p. 1973 (with others) Geologic map of the Beech Grove Quadrangle, Tennessee: Tennessee Division of Geology, GM 58-NW, scale 1:24,000.
Notice how the fault crater signatures are radial at Howell as in still projecting force outward. Whereas the Well's Creek map shown left has radial faults as the violent center or wall effects.
Elk River bottom land plantation of J.W. Young Sr. as it is today. Weelerton, TN.
Einstein spent most of his life searching for the unified theory that would tie all the theories together. He was skeptical about quantum theory.
Like Einstein, Wilson spent the rest of his life investigating the strange Chattanooga Shale presentation throughout the state and even mapped it. He never grasp the full significance of impact even though a couple of craters were identified in Middle, TN however small.
Below is Bob Beaver's Engineering map of the Chattanooga Shale showing it's impact presentation in the other strata as recorded by Wilson.
<< Frankewing, TN Impact.
People are often confused about craters having mountains in them. This is a rebounding effect. They are also confused when the crater circle is not a perfect circle rim. This is because the average impact occurs at 45 degrees not 90. This gets even more pronounced as the angle gets lower. The Frankewing, TN Impact being the lowest on earth and perhaps the observable crater detail universe. The Frankewing, TN Impact is a teardrop shape, an oval with a wider side.
USGS map of moon. Very few craters on the moon have more than one ring. This one has three although they converge on right side as it was an angled hit from the right. Speed and mass make the difference. The moon was unable to carry the speed of the shock and it overtook the waveform causing a ring. It kept going and it overtook again until finally stopping with the final rubble pile outside crater wall. This one is older than the Howell/Frankewing TN structure. It is also not a tangent impact as you have complete circles. A late hit and arc faults is extremely rare as an impact event. It is speed and mass that caused this "moon boom." Same with earth.
The idea of "Peer Review."
The peerage in the United Kingdom is a legal system comprising both hereditary and lifetime titles, composed of various noble ranks, and forming a constituent part of the British honours system. The medical peer review "The Lancet" is called that because it was based on the bleeding system of humoral medical practice. So what is the use of peer reviewing a bogus system of thinking?
Oh wait, you say that is not academic peer review, but is it?
Consider that in the almost century of peer review articles about the Howell, TN Impact Structure none solved any issue or contributed to science but were published. What is the scientific point of that?
If you solve some issue of science but are not part of the academic peerage you will not be published.
And consider the system construction. If you are doing new research who is your peer?
It is a system to prosper the status quo. Plate tectonics in geology takes 50 years to be adopted and is not developed by a geologist.
Let's consider another aspect of publish peer review, funding. A journal has sponsors. That which benefits sponsors gets published. Peer review is an overarching in breed system.
Another problem of peer review is cross discipline research. Journals are not set up for this. So lets take an excellent example, which is very interesting by the way. "The Electric Universe Theory" which you can see on youtube. Now who would be the type of scientist to peer review this? While I find this concept new and fascinating; I also find it ignorant of shock crater physics. But I also find geology and Astro-physics low funded and sterile in this area. So while this article brings some refreshing new theory it does not do any justice to providing any real synthesis since it is so poor in demarcating the boundary of its application. You can watch the electric crater concept at: Impact Craters vs. Electrical Discharge Craters | Space News - YouTube
The Craters Are Electric (thunderbolts.info)
Craters are not flat and smooth inside.
𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐥 𝐂𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐬
Mimas, small 400 kilometer-diameter moon of Saturn, is host to 130 kilometer-diameter Herschel crater, one of the larger impact craters in the entire Solar System. The robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn in 2010 recorded this startling view of small moon and big crater while making a 10,000-kilometer record close pass by the diminutive icy world.
Shown in contrast-enhanced false color, the image data reveal more clearly that Herschel's landscape is colored slightly differently from heavily cratered terrain nearby. The color difference could yield surface composition clues to the violent history of Mimas. Of course, an impact on Mimas any larger than the one that created the 130-kilometer Herschel might have destroyed the small moon of Saturn.
Image Credit Cassini Imaging Team, ISS, JPL, ESA, NASA