Mahuika crater
Encyclopedia
Mahuika crater is a proposed submarine bolide impact crater
, 20 ± 2 km wide and over 153 m deep, on the New Zealand
continental shelf named after the Māori god of fire
. It was discovered by Dallas Abbott
and her colleagues from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
of the Columbia University
.
Around the year 1400, the natives of New Zealand abandoned their southern coastal settlements. New Zealand tsunami expert Professor James Goff attributes coastal abandonment in New Zealand at 1500 AD to an earthquake-induced tsunami event. However, the largest historical earthquakes produced maximum tsunami runups of 40 to 60 metres. On Stewart Island, New Zealand, beach sand is present ~220 metres above sea level at Hellfire Hut and ~150 metres above sea level at Mason Bay. In eastern Australia, there are megatsunami
deposits with maximum run-ups of over 130 metres and a C-14 age of ~1500 AD[2]. Megatsunami deposits occur on the eastern side of Lord Howe Island
in the middle of the Tasman Sea
, implying a source crater for the tsunami further east. Abbott et al. (2003) suggests that a bolide impact would explain both the geological and anthropological evidence better than an earthquake.
Based on elemental anomalies, fossils, and minerals, which are interpreted to be derived from the impact, found in an ice core
from the Siple Dome in Antarctica, Abbott et al. (2005) argues that the impact, which created the Mahuika crater occurred around 1443 AD.
Impact crater
In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...
, 20 ± 2 km wide and over 153 m deep, on the New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
continental shelf named after the Māori god of fire
Mahuika
Mahuika is a Māori fire deity. Generally, Mahuika is female. In some versions, she is the younger sister of Hine-nui-te-pō, goddess of death. It was from her that Māui obtained the secret of making fire. She married Auahi-Turoa and together they had five children, named for the five fingers on the...
. It was discovered by Dallas Abbott
Dallas Abbott
Dallas Abbott is a research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and is part of the Holocene Impact Working Group. The primary focus of her present research is on submarine impact craters and their contribution to climate change and megatsunamis...
and her colleagues from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
The Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory is a research unit of Columbia University located on a campus in Palisades, N.Y., north of Manhattan on the Hudson River.- History :...
of the Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
.
Around the year 1400, the natives of New Zealand abandoned their southern coastal settlements. New Zealand tsunami expert Professor James Goff attributes coastal abandonment in New Zealand at 1500 AD to an earthquake-induced tsunami event. However, the largest historical earthquakes produced maximum tsunami runups of 40 to 60 metres. On Stewart Island, New Zealand, beach sand is present ~220 metres above sea level at Hellfire Hut and ~150 metres above sea level at Mason Bay. In eastern Australia, there are megatsunami
Megatsunami
Megatsunami is an informal term to describe a tsunami that has initial wave heights that are much larger than normal tsunamis...
deposits with maximum run-ups of over 130 metres and a C-14 age of ~1500 AD[2]. Megatsunami deposits occur on the eastern side of Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, directly east of mainland Port Macquarie, and about from Norfolk Island. The island is about 11 km long and between 2.8 km and 0.6 km wide with an area of...
in the middle of the Tasman Sea
Tasman Sea
The Tasman Sea is the large body of water between Australia and New Zealand, approximately across. It extends 2,800 km from north to south. It is a south-western segment of the South Pacific Ocean. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, the first recorded European...
, implying a source crater for the tsunami further east. Abbott et al. (2003) suggests that a bolide impact would explain both the geological and anthropological evidence better than an earthquake.
Based on elemental anomalies, fossils, and minerals, which are interpreted to be derived from the impact, found in an ice core
Ice core
An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet, most commonly from the polar ice caps of Antarctica, Greenland or from high mountain glaciers elsewhere. As the ice forms from the incremental build up of annual layers of snow, lower layers are older than upper, and an ice...
from the Siple Dome in Antarctica, Abbott et al. (2005) argues that the impact, which created the Mahuika crater occurred around 1443 AD.
External links
- Abstract of Geological Society of America talk by Andrew K. Matzen on tektites from Mahuika crater
- …and the Fire from Heaven 2004 article disputing Mahuika impact origin of 15th century tsunami
- Expedition hunts giant meteor by S. Collins. Newspaper article about ongoing Mahuika impact research.