Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Caption: Marker detail: 375 Million Years Ago
Panther Mountain Impact Footprint
Additional Description: A meteor hit Panther Mountain in Oliverea, creating a 7-mile-wide crater. Or did it? In the 1970s, geologist Yngvar lsachsen, intrigued by the curiously curved question mark shape of the Esopus Creek, began to study the area and discovered fractures in the rocky streambed and other microscopic evidence of a meteor strike. According to this theory, the meteor would have been about 1/2 mile across and the explosion equal to 11 trillion tons of TNT. The shattered rock allowed water to flow more freely, influencing the shape of the Esopus hundreds of millions of years later. Abnormally weak gravity in the area is also thought to be the result of the impact, perhaps making your hike to the top of Panther Mountain just a little bit easier!
Submitted: March 29, 2020, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Database Locator Identification Number: p514977
File Size: 0.442 Megabytes

To see the metadata that may be embedded in this photo, sign in and then return to this page.