Kinnondale isn’t the end of the world, but you can see what it might look like from there.
A media release from the University of Alberta has reported the discovery of “an ancient ring-like structure in southern Alberta”.
Situated “near the southern Alberta hamlet of Bow City“, it is speculated the impact site was struck by a meteorite large enough to leave an eight-kilometre-wide crater.
The impact site was discovered by a geologist with the Alberta Geological Survey, Paul Glombick, and studied by a U of A team led by Doug Schmitt, Canada Research Chair in Rock Physics.
According to researchers from the Alberta Geological Survey and University of Alberta, the impact would have produced an explosion strong enough to destroy present-day Calgary:
“An impact of this magnitude would kill everything for quite a distance,” [said Doug Schmitt]. “If it happened today, Calgary (200 km to the northwest) would be completely fried and in Edmonton (500 km northwest), every window would have been blown out. Something of that size, throwing that much debris in the air, potentially would have global consequences; there could have been ramifications for decades.”
Having picked up various tidbits of info on what has been referred to as the “Bow City structure” over the years, I believe the impact site is more accurately situated in the Kinnondale district, located west of the present-day hamlet of Bow City.
In the days to come I am going to do my level best to seek out the epicentre of the Bow City meteor strike, which may or may not be within sight of Kinnondale, Alberta.
Stay tuned…
Related:
The UTM coordinates of the epicentre are on the geological map in the newspaper story, i.e. about 404000 E 5590000 N which equates to 50.45414233 N 112.35233228 W. If you put those lat/long cords into Google maps it shows you exactly where it is. Of course Google doesn’t show Bow City :-). This link should work:
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/50%C2%B027'14.9%22N+112%C2%B021'08.4%22W/@50.5794478,-113.0807773,9z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0
As a (sort of geologist) I suspect there won’t be any sign on the surface whatever of the crater, after all it will all have been scraped away by the ice sheets since then !
I just discovered your website and think it’s great by the way! I’ll be reading it for quite a while…
David Millar
Cochrane
Thanks David for reading and your kind comments! That’s about where I thought it was, based on some material on the “Bow City structure” from the Alberta Geological Survey I found some time ago. My family has farmed and lived in the area for over a century, and the fact there was anything unusual about the location was a revelation to us. I though the quote of one of the geologists involved summed it up nicely: “It’s probably one of the most boring places. It’s beautiful, but it’s flatline and in that sense it’s quite boring.” http://ow.ly/wDbNH
I’m heading out tomorrow to get a closer look. Stay tuned for an update!