APOD: Manicouagan Impact Crater from Space (2024 May 25)

[APOD Robot]

Manicouagan Impact Crater from Space

Explanation: Orbiting 400 kilometers above Quebec, Canada, planet Earth, the International Space Station Expedition 59 crew captured this snapshot of the broad St. Lawrence River and curiously circular Lake Manicouagan on April 11. Right of center, the ring-shaped lake is a modern reservoir within the eroded remnant of an ancient 100 kilometer diameter impact crater. The ancient crater is very conspicuous from orbit, a visible reminder that Earth is vulnerable to rocks from space. Over 200 million years old, the Manicouagan crater was likely caused by the impact of a rocky body about 5 kilometers in diameter. Currently, there is no known asteroid with a significant probability of impacting Earth in the next century. Each month, NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office releases an update featuring the most recent figures on near-Earth object close approaches, and other facts about comets and asteroids that could pose a potential impact hazard with Earth.

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[Rauf]

Orbiting 400 kilometers above Quebec, Canada, planet Earth, the International Space Station Expedition 59 crew captured this snapshot of the broad St. Lawrence River and curiously circular Lake Manicouagan on April 11.

April 11? Which one? I guess the one in 2019?

[AVAO]

Manicouagan Impact Crater from Space

Click to view full size image

Click to view full size image

Hill in the center:

Click to view full size image

Click to view full size image

Image source: Google Earth

[florid_snow]

"When's your birthday?"
"April 11th"
"What year?"
"Every year!"

[Angry bee]

So is there an asteroid within the circle and is it worth looking for?

[Chris Peterson]

Orbiting 400 kilometers above Quebec, Canada, planet Earth, the International Space Station Expedition 59 crew captured this snapshot of the broad St. Lawrence River and curiously circular Lake Manicouagan on April 11.

April 11? Which one? I guess the one in 2019?

As Expedition 59 was from March through June of 2019, that's a reasonable assumption!

[Roy]

Lots of interesting questions arise! How accurate are age estimates? The text says 215 million years, 1 million years plus or minus, so cannot have caused Triassic-Jurassic die-off at 201 million years. Percentage of error possible at that remove, for each estimate?
Also, where was Quebec back then? Continents move.
Fossil remains in the area discovered?
Inquiring minds want to know.

[Chris Peterson]

Lots of interesting questions arise! How accurate are age estimates? The text says 215 million years, 1 million years plus or minus, so cannot have caused Triassic-Jurassic die-off at 201 million years. Percentage of error possible at that remove, for each estimate?
Also, where was Quebec back then? Continents move.
Fossil remains in the area discovered?
Inquiring minds want to know.

This occurred when there was only one landmass on Earth, Pangea. The area that became Quebec was at a lower latitude, probably not far north of the tropics.

The radiometric dating methods used to determine the age of the event are very well developed, so the 215 million year determination is almost certainly quite close. I don't think anybody considers the impact to have been the cause of that extinction event, although its climatic impact may have been contributory.

[Ann]

Lots of interesting questions arise! How accurate are age estimates? The text says 215 million years, 1 million years plus or minus, so cannot have caused Triassic-Jurassic die-off at 201 million years. Percentage of error possible at that remove, for each estimate?
Also, where was Quebec back then? Continents move.
Fossil remains in the area discovered?
Inquiring minds want to know.

This occurred when there was only one landmass on Earth, Pangea. The area that became Quebec was at a lower latitude, probably not far north of the tropics.

The radiometric dating methods used to determine the age of the event are very well developed, so the 215 million year determination is almost certainly quite close. I don't think anybody considers the impact to have been the cause of that extinction event, although its climatic impact may have been contributory.

The Siberian Traps, I'm just saying!!!

The extent of the Siberian Traps. Credit: Derivative work: Jo (talk) Sibirien_topo2.png: Ulamm 21:06, 18 April 2008 (UTC) - Sibirien_topo2.png Physical map of Siberia with extent of Siberian traps according to http://www.mantleplumes.org/Siberia.html

---

Wikipedia wrote:

The Siberian Traps (Russian: Сибирские траппы, romanized: Sibirskiye trappy) is a large region of volcanic rock, known as a large igneous province, in Siberia, Russia. The massive eruptive event that formed the traps is one of the largest known volcanic events in the last 500 million years.

The eruptions continued for roughly two million years and spanned the Permian–Triassic boundary, or P–T boundary, which occurred around 251.9 million years ago. The Siberian Traps are believed to be the primary cause of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the most severe extinction event in the geologic record.

I think I've heard that this enormously prolonged series of volcanic eruptions had something to do with the breaking up of the super-continent Pangea and/or with the Indian tectonic plate colliding with the Russian plate.

So the Permian–Triassic extinction event happened before the impact event that formed Lake Manicouagan. Well, whatever, the formation of that lake by a falling rock (albeit a large one) is probably not at all comparable to the Earth turning itself inside out to spew red-hot lava and enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the air for two million years over an area of seven million square kilometers.

Ann

[johnnydeep]

Lots of interesting questions arise! How accurate are age estimates? The text says 215 million years, 1 million years plus or minus, so cannot have caused Triassic-Jurassic die-off at 201 million years. Percentage of error possible at that remove, for each estimate?
Also, where was Quebec back then? Continents move.
Fossil remains in the area discovered?
Inquiring minds want to know.

This occurred when there was only one landmass on Earth, Pangea. The area that became Quebec was at a lower latitude, probably not far north of the tropics.

The radiometric dating methods used to determine the age of the event are very well developed, so the 215 million year determination is almost certainly quite close. I don't think anybody considers the impact to have been the cause of that extinction event, although its climatic impact may have been contributory.

The Siberian Traps, I'm just saying!!!

...

Wikipedia wrote:

The Siberian Traps (Russian: Сибирские траппы, romanized: Sibirskiye trappy) is a large region of volcanic rock, known as a large igneous province, in Siberia, Russia. The massive eruptive event that formed the traps is one of the largest known volcanic events in the last 500 million years.

The eruptions continued for roughly two million years and spanned the Permian–Triassic boundary, or P–T boundary, which occurred around 251.9 million years ago. The Siberian Traps are believed to be the primary cause of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the most severe extinction event in the geologic record.

I think I've heard that this enormously prolonged series of volcanic eruptions had something to do with the breaking up of with the super-continent Pangea and/or with the Indian tectonic plate colliding with the Russian plate.

So the Permian–Triassic extinction event happened before the impact event that formed Lake Manicouagan. Well, whatever, the formation of that lake by a falling rock (albeit a large one) is probably not at all comparable to the Earth turning itself inside out to spew red-hot lava and enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the air for two million years over an area of seven million square kilometers.

Ann

I'm still wondering when the supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park in the United States is going to blow. When and if it does, it will make all current concerns about climate warming seem trivial in comparison. But it seems that eruption is no imminent. And besides, we have a sever hurricane season to get through ins 2024 first!

Is the Yellowstone supervolcano really 'due' for an eruption?

Yellowstone's supervolcano last erupted 70,000 years ago. Will it erupt again anytime soon?

Beneath Yellowstone National Park, a vast region of spectacular wilderness visited by around 3 million people annually, lurks one of the largest volcanoes in the world.

The Yellowstone Caldera — the cauldron-like basin at the summit of the volcano — is so colossal that it is often called a "supervolcano," which, according to the Natural History Museum in London, means it has the capacity to "produce a magnitude-eight eruption on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, discharging more than 1,000 cubic kilometers [240 cubic miles] of material."

To put that into perspective, the 1991 eruption of Pinatubo in the Philippines, arguably the most powerful volcanic eruption in living memory, was rated a 6 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, making it, according to the Natural History Museum, "around 100 times smaller than the benchmark for a supervolcano."

So should we be worried? Will Yellowstone erupt anytime soon?
...

Is Yellowstone "due" for an eruption?

Media reports have often claimed that Yellowstone is due to erupt. They claim that because the last eruption of the supervolcano was 70,000 years ago, it's bound to blow soon. But that's not how volcanoes work.

"This is perhaps the most common misconception about Yellowstone, and about volcanoes in general. Volcanoes don't work on timelines," Michael Poland, a geophysicist and the scientist-in-charge at Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, told Live Science in an email. "They erupt when there is enough eruptible magma beneath the surface, and pressure to cause that magma to ascend.

"Neither condition is in place at Yellowstone right now," he added. "It's all about that magma supply. Cut that off, and the volcano won't erupt."

[Chris Peterson]

Lots of interesting questions arise! How accurate are age estimates? The text says 215 million years, 1 million years plus or minus, so cannot have caused Triassic-Jurassic die-off at 201 million years. Percentage of error possible at that remove, for each estimate?
Also, where was Quebec back then? Continents move.
Fossil remains in the area discovered?
Inquiring minds want to know.

This occurred when there was only one landmass on Earth, Pangea. The area that became Quebec was at a lower latitude, probably not far north of the tropics.

The radiometric dating methods used to determine the age of the event are very well developed, so the 215 million year determination is almost certainly quite close. I don't think anybody considers the impact to have been the cause of that extinction event, although its climatic impact may have been contributory.

The Siberian Traps, I'm just saying!!!

The extent of the Siberian Traps. Credit: Derivative work: Jo (talk) Sibirien_topo2.png: Ulamm 21:06, 18 April 2008 (UTC) - Sibirien_topo2.png Physical map of Siberia with extent of Siberian traps according to http://www.mantleplumes.org/Siberia.html

---

Wikipedia wrote:

The Siberian Traps (Russian: Сибирские траппы, romanized: Sibirskiye trappy) is a large region of volcanic rock, known as a large igneous province, in Siberia, Russia. The massive eruptive event that formed the traps is one of the largest known volcanic events in the last 500 million years.

The eruptions continued for roughly two million years and spanned the Permian–Triassic boundary, or P–T boundary, which occurred around 251.9 million years ago. The Siberian Traps are believed to be the primary cause of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the most severe extinction event in the geologic record.

I think I've heard that this enormously prolonged series of volcanic eruptions had something to do with the breaking up of with the super-continent Pangea and/or with the Indian tectonic plate colliding with the Russian plate.

So the Permian–Triassic extinction event happened before the impact event that formed Lake Manicouagan. Well, whatever, the formation of that lake by a falling rock (albeit a large one) is probably not at all comparable to the Earth turning itself inside out to spew red-hot lava and enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the air for two million years over an area of seven million square kilometers.

Ann

We have the Permian-Triassic extinction event 252 million years ago, closely associated with the flood basalt events that produced the Siberian Traps, and we have the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event 201 million years ago, closely associated with the flood basalt events that produced the Central Atlantic magmatic province. And this impact event sitting between the two. So if the impact had any... well, impact... then it would have been on the Triassic-Jurassic extinction. But it certainly couldn't have been the cause. At most, perhaps, a stressor.

[Chris Peterson]

This occurred when there was only one landmass on Earth, Pangea. The area that became Quebec was at a lower latitude, probably not far north of the tropics.

The radiometric dating methods used to determine the age of the event are very well developed, so the 215 million year determination is almost certainly quite close. I don't think anybody considers the impact to have been the cause of that extinction event, although its climatic impact may have been contributory.

The Siberian Traps, I'm just saying!!!

...

Wikipedia wrote:

The Siberian Traps (Russian: Сибирские траппы, romanized: Sibirskiye trappy) is a large region of volcanic rock, known as a large igneous province, in Siberia, Russia. The massive eruptive event that formed the traps is one of the largest known volcanic events in the last 500 million years.

The eruptions continued for roughly two million years and spanned the Permian–Triassic boundary, or P–T boundary, which occurred around 251.9 million years ago. The Siberian Traps are believed to be the primary cause of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the most severe extinction event in the geologic record.

I think I've heard that this enormously prolonged series of volcanic eruptions had something to do with the breaking up of with the super-continent Pangea and/or with the Indian tectonic plate colliding with the Russian plate.

So the Permian–Triassic extinction event happened before the impact event that formed Lake Manicouagan. Well, whatever, the formation of that lake by a falling rock (albeit a large one) is probably not at all comparable to the Earth turning itself inside out to spew red-hot lava and enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the air for two million years over an area of seven million square kilometers.

Ann

I'm still wondering when the supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park in the United States is going to blow. When and if it does, it will make all current concerns about climate warming seem trivial in comparison. But it seems that eruption is no imminent. And besides, we have a sever hurricane season to get through ins 2024 first!

It would have no long-term impact on the climate. Single supervolcano events can be devastating locally, and will have some impact on global climate for a few years, but that's all. The only volcanic events that significantly impact long-term climate are flood basalts that last for centuries and produce large igneous provinces like the Deccan Traps.

[johnnydeep]

The Siberian Traps, I'm just saying!!!

...



I think I've heard that this enormously prolonged series of volcanic eruptions had something to do with the breaking up of with the super-continent Pangea and/or with the Indian tectonic plate colliding with the Russian plate.

So the Permian–Triassic extinction event happened before the impact event that formed Lake Manicouagan. Well, whatever, the formation of that lake by a falling rock (albeit a large one) is probably not at all comparable to the Earth turning itself inside out to spew red-hot lava and enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the air for two million years over an area of seven million square kilometers.

Ann

I'm still wondering when the supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park in the United States is going to blow. When and if it does, it will make all current concerns about climate warming seem trivial in comparison. But it seems that eruption is no imminent. And besides, we have a sever hurricane season to get through ins 2024 first!

It would have no long-term impact on the climate. Single supervolcano events can be devastating locally, and will have some impact on global climate for a few years, but that's all. The only volcanic events that significantly impact long-term climate are flood basalts that last for centuries and produce large igneous provinces like the Deccan Traps.

Ok, good to know. But the short term "upheaval" will surely be quite enough for mankind to deal with and will affect all nations worldwide as you say. But at least we won't have to argue with the deniers who claim climate change is all man made! Hmm, though perhaps they will blame the eruption on humanity's veering away from God and not being "true to The Bible".

[izizil]

Does anyone else see two additional spots that look like they could also be impact locations? Immediately to the Northwest of the circle for Manicouagan is another smaller circular object and even further northwest is a much larger circular object with a circle in its center. Are these all known to be impact sites or am I seeing something different and interpreting them as impacts?

[johnnydeep]

Does anyone else see two additional spots that look like they could also be impact locations? Immediately to the Northwest of the circle for Manicouagan is another smaller circular object and even further northwest is a much larger circular object with a circle in its center. Are these all known to be impact sites or am I seeing something different and interpreting them as impacts?

I'm not seeing what you're seeing. I'm gonna need a picture. Maybe these two in green are some of the other "circles" but I think it's highly dubious: