# Is the Hudson's bay a Giant Meteorite Impact Crater? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 27, 2008, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-hudsons-bay-a-giant-meteorite-impact-crater/469756 "2008-10-27T13:54:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-hudsons-bay-a-giant-meteorite-impact-crater/469756/1 "2008-10-27T13:54:29Z")
As scientists debate what killed off the dinosaurs, the question (as to where the meteor that caused it landed) revolves arounf the Yucatan region of mexico. However, has anyone considered Hudson’s bay? Two things might be relevant" 1. it is roughly circular, as an impact crater would be 2. it is shallow, with a fairly flat bottom It is such a strangely-shaped body of water-what do geologists say/ ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-hudsons-bay-a-giant-meteorite-impact-crater/469756/2 "2008-10-27T13:56:07Z")
[http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/planets/impact-No.htm](http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/planets/impact-No.htm) ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-hudsons-bay-a-giant-meteorite-impact-crater/469756/3 "2008-10-27T14:02:24Z")
Does a meteorite have to hit the Earth at a 90 degree angle to get a circular impact crater? How come we don’t see many pear-shaped ones, or long gouges? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-hudsons-bay-a-giant-meteorite-impact-crater/469756/4 "2008-10-27T14:07:53Z")
Recent[sup]\*[/sup] thread: [What is Hudson Bay ?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=44853&highlight=Hudson) * * * [sup]\*[/sup] Geologically speaking. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-hudsons-bay-a-giant-meteorite-impact-crater/469756/5 "2008-10-27T14:15:21Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > Does a meteorite have to hit the Earth at a 90 degree angle to get a circular impact crater? How come we don’t see many pear-shaped ones, or long gouges? Things approaching the atmosphere at an angle often “bounce”. Plus, the greater the entry angle, the more heat will build up around the object, so the smaller it will be by the time it hits the ground (if at all). ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-hudsons-bay-a-giant-meteorite-impact-crater/469756/6 "2008-10-27T14:15:34Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Recent[sup]\*[/sup] thread: > > [What is Hudson Bay ?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=44853&highlight=Hudson) > > * * * > > [sup]\*[/sup] Geologically speaking. And long\*, too. \*If measured in penile inches. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-hudsons-bay-a-giant-meteorite-impact-crater/469756/7 "2008-10-27T15:18:55Z")
I’d always thought of Hudson Bay as _square_. Recognising that I’m at the arse end of the planet, and that for some inexplicable reason, Hudson Bay tends not to loom large in my daily affairs, I thought that maybe my memory was faulty, so I had a look at the globe that sits on my computer desk. Hudson Bay looks a little rounder than I remembered, but it still seems closer to a square than a circle. ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-hudsons-bay-a-giant-meteorite-impact-crater/469756/8 "2008-10-27T15:23:23Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > Does a meteorite have to hit the Earth at a 90 degree angle to get a circular impact crater? How come we don’t see many pear-shaped ones, or long gouges? Most impacts produce circular craters unless the impact is at a _very_ shallow angle. From [this page](http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/projects/geoweb/participants/dutch/VTrips/CarolinaBays.HTM) (talking about some elliptical geological structures that are not craters but is the first cite I found). > [@](#): > > The elliptical shape invites speculation about oblique impact. In fact, only the most grazing impacts produce elliptical craters. A crater is due to the instantaneous release of a meteorite’s kinetic energy as heat, and that process will not depend on trajectory. Oblique impacts do produce a distinctive ejecta pattern. Ejecta is not thrown backwards toward the direction of approach, and ejecta thrown in the direction of travel will be flung upward. The only places ejecta will be hurled around the crater rim will be off to the sides, producing a two-lobed “butterfly” pattern. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-hudsons-bay-a-giant-meteorite-impact-crater/469756/9 "2008-10-27T22:17:13Z")
\>Does a meteorite have to hit the Earth at a 90 degree angle to get a circular impact crater? The movies get it wrong. It’s not a big rotating ball with diesel flames billowing behind it, and you wouldn’t see it move. It’s more of a lightning bolt, an absolutely straight line that happens all at once and doesn’t have any direction to it. The meteorite burrows under ground and slows to a stop. However, there is a great deal of heat involved, and the matter closest at hand is vaporized, and the vapor blows a crater open. The same thing happens on smaller scales with shallow buried explosives. I’m not aware that much of anything provides a clue, after the fact, about which direction it came from (unless perhaps there is a line of air blast damage or radiation burns from the lightning bolt). ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-hudsons-bay-a-giant-meteorite-impact-crater/469756/10 "2008-10-27T22:22:26Z")
As a bit of trivia, cars and pedestrians generally have a smaller mutual speed ratio than big meteorites (at ground level) and bullets. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-hudsons-bay-a-giant-meteorite-impact-crater/469756/11 "2008-10-28T00:54:20Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > Does a meteorite have to hit the Earth at a 90 degree angle to get a circular impact crater? How come we don’t see many pear-shaped ones, or long gouges? In the southeast USA, there are many oval or roughly teardrop-shaped depressions called Carolina Bays which, some theorists say, could have been caused by meteoric showers but there is little or no extraterrestrial material in them (they could have been formed by glancing, or skipalong hits, IMHO). see the “Theories of Origins” section about halfway down in > **[Carolina bays](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_bays)** > > Carolina bays, also regionally known as Maryland basins and Delmarva bays, are elliptical to circular depressions concentrated along the East Coast of the United States from New York to north Florida. > Carolina bays are present in the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain within coastal New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and north Florida. In Maryland, they are called Maryland basins. Within the Delmarva Peninsula, they and other coastal ponds are a... ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-hudsons-bay-a-giant-meteorite-impact-crater/469756/12 "2008-10-28T12:04:58Z")
Besides the Carolina Bays, there are long trench-like “gouges” in Campo del Cielo Argentina that, it was suggested, were due to glancing meteorite strikes. > **[1102.pdf](https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2006/pdf/1102.pdf)** > > 178.05 KB > **[2017.pdf](https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2007/pdf/2017.pdf)** > > 208.62 KB [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hlfDVNX8KBk/hqdefault.jpg "Campo del Cielo") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlfDVNX8KBk) When I looked these up, I found this article suggesting that, although they started as meteor craters, a lot of the shape may be due to weathering. No pix, whixh is a shame – they look impressive: > **[National Geographic](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/)** > > Explore National Geographic. A world leader in geography, cartography and exploration. ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-hudsons-bay-a-giant-meteorite-impact-crater/469756/13 "2008-10-28T12:26:21Z")
> [@Ignatz](#): > > In the southeast USA, there are many oval or roughly teardrop-shaped depressions called Carolina Bays which, some theorists say, could have been caused by meteoric showers but there is little or no extraterrestrial material in them (they could have been formed by glancing, or skipalong hits, IMHO). The link I gave above (post 8) is specifically about the Carolina Bays and the author of the link discounts the possibility that they are craters. ((Anecdote: I used to live in South Carolina about a quarter mile from one of the bays. It’s pretty much filled in now (they built a shopping center in it) but the local story was that it was a meteor crater.))