# Impact crater discovered in California **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 18, 2007, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-crater-discovered-in-california/396488 "2007-03-18T22:39:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-crater-discovered-in-california/396488/1 "2007-03-18T22:39:45Z")
[Oil exploration work in California’s Central Valley region has uncovered a possible space impact crater.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6458841.stm) > [@](#): > > The 5.5km-wide bowl is buried under shale sediments west of Stockton, in San Joaquin County, and is thought to be between 37 and 49 million years old. Neat. I like this sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-crater-discovered-in-california/396488/2 "2007-03-18T22:44:55Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] [Oil exploration work in California’s Central Valley region has uncovered a possible space impact crater.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6458841.stm) Neat. I like this sort of thing. [/QUOTE] Neat. I drive through there all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-crater-discovered-in-california/396488/3 "2007-03-18T22:47:06Z")
[QUOTE=Stuffy] Neat. I drive through there all the time. [/QUOTE] I’ve had just about enough of that drive. At least for a while. I was flying north one time, and we went to the east of Mt. Shasta instead of the west. I looked down and saw several round features on the ground. I wondered if they were old impact craters, or if they were volcanic. Since I was on a commercial jet, I don’t know exactly where these features were. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-crater-discovered-in-california/396488/4 "2007-03-19T02:40:32Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] I’ve had just about enough of that drive. At least for a while. I was flying north one time, and we went to the east of Mt. Shasta instead of the west. I looked down and saw several round features on the ground. I wondered if they were old impact craters, or if they were volcanic. Since I was on a commercial jet, I don’t know exactly where these features were. [/QUOTE] There’s a series of three smaller mountains in an arc in the general location you describe, according to National Geographic map of the area. The southernmost is named “Deep Crater” – so I’d have a pretty firm guess that’s what you saw. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-crater-discovered-in-california/396488/5 "2007-03-19T02:53:24Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] I was flying north one time, and we went to the east of Mt. Shasta… [/QUOTE] That was a while ago: [Crater east of Shasta? Geologists, please read.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=92399) ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-crater-discovered-in-california/396488/6 "2007-03-19T03:04:52Z")
[These three](http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&q=&z=10&ll=41.520917,-121.845245&spn=0.736191,1.277161&t=k&om=1) off to the right? ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-crater-discovered-in-california/396488/7 "2007-03-19T04:10:19Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] Neat. I like this sort of thing. [/QUOTE] You need to go to [this site](http://janus.astro.umd.edu/astro/impact/)😃 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impact-crater-discovered-in-california/396488/8 "2007-03-19T04:40:29Z")
[QUOTE=garygnu] [These three](http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&q=&z=10&ll=41.520917,-121.845245&spn=0.736191,1.277161&t=k&om=1) off to the right? [/QUOTE] Could be. I noticed there are some other circular lakes to the north as well, and in a line with those three. But it’s been about six years…