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Science 10 May 2002:
Vol. 296. no. 5570, pp. 1037 - 1038
DOI: 10.1126/science.1071199
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Perspectives

ASTEROIDS:
Traces of an Unusual Impact

H. J. Melosh

Ten years ago, depressions in the Pampean plains in Argentina were interpreted as impact craters caused by a low-angle asteroid impact that grazed the Earth surface as recently as 10,000 years ago. In his Perspective, Melosh discusses a new interpretation of these features by Bland et al., who conclude that the depressions themselves are caused by wind but that the impact-produced glass found in the purported craters is part of a tektite strewn-field caused by a much larger, slightly oblique impact that caused glass melted from the surface to be splashed as far as 800 km or more.

The author is in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. E-mail: jmelosh{at}lpl.arizona.edu

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