The 1,000 year old Oak tree at Wickwar Quarry…. that created a lot of discussion….. it’s not the oldest discovery on this CEMEX site!

215 million years ago a celestial visitor smashed into the earth in what is now Canada.  The impact of the asteroid, that would have been 5 km in size, created a shockwave 40 million times greater than the Hiroshima blast!

The shockwave created molten rock and dust clouds that were thrown up into the atmosphere. This effect would have lasted for years and the dust deposited a thin layer of glass beads and shattered minerals over the earth…. and evidence of the fallout was discovered in Wickwar and Churchwood Quarry.

Frank Hogg and the team recently hosted a visit from Dr John Spray, Director – Planetary and Space Science Centre, Canada, to view and sample the Bristol Impact Layer, as it’s known.  This layer is a special find indeed! To find out more go to:

https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manicouagan_crater

This is an image of the massive Canadian crater taken from space in 1983.