With a draft illustration by Karl Anshanslin
Last week, we talked about the hypothesis that an asteroid once struck the Catskills vicinity – right where Panther Mountain is today. As popular science writers, we love the Panther Mountain impact story. It gives us such a good tale to tell. There have been many times when we were doing one of our geology walks at some prominent high point in the Catskills, and we pointed toward Panther Mountain, and dramatically orated on that great event. As we said last week, you can read our version of the story on pages 133-135 of the 2016 edition our book “The Catskills: A Geological Guide.” We just plain like the story. If we could push a button and make it true, then we would eagerly push that button. But that is not how science works. Last week we tried to make a case in favor of the impact story. This week we would like to see if we can argue against it. We have been advised on this by Dr. Charles, “Chuck” Ver Straeten of the New York State Museum.
A good scientific hypothesis always generates one or more “predictions.” The impact hypothesis, as we explained last week, predicted the presence of iron-rich droplets called impactites. Also, it predicted something called shocked quartz grains. These were both found. Then too, gravity anomalies were found just as had been predicted. All in all, we were able to build what appeared to be a good case for the impact hypothesis. But there was a fourth prediction. There should be, buried below Panther Mountain, the original crater itself. And below that crater there should be an enormous mass of deformed rock. See our illustration by Karl Anshanslin.
We have been able to search online and find illustrations of the cross sections of such impacts. These vary considerably but they all focus on one thing, the fracturing and the disorder of the bedding that an impact would produce. As seen here, most of the disruption is confined to within the rim of the old crater. It’s reasonable to expect that when such rocks have been drilled, perhaps when being searched for oil, then those deformed horizons would be turned up. Also, there is good reason to expect that deformation would have been spread out far more widely than we portray. If so then these can all be searched for. These strata have been drilled and the drill cores do not reveal disruption. The same strata are exposed along the Catskill Front and also to the west. Once again, when searched, no disruption appears. In short, the impact just does not seem to be there. On that basis, a lot of geologists have thought that the hypothesis has been falsified. When falsified, a hypothesis is typically discarded. Goodbye Panther Mountain impact!
So, is that that; is this asteroid hypothesis really a sunken ship? That seems likely, but maybe you can help. There are a lot of you, and you do a lot of hiking. We would like it if you kept a watch out for evidence of that impact. That would most likely be downslope from the top of the Wall of Manitou. It would be a thick sequence of badly deformed stratified rock, probably sandstone. Keep that sharp eye out; you might make a very helpful discovery- and save one of our favorite tales. But, don’t count on it. It appears that those disrupted strata really are not there. Every time you go exploring and don’t find them, then you are simply reaffirming their absence. That may be bad news for a good story but that’s the way science works.
Contact the authors at randjtitus@prodigy.net. Join their facebook page “The Catskill Geologist.” Read their blogs at “thecatskillgeologist.com.”
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