Evidence of an Asteroid Impact in the Central Arctic Ocean?

Revaluation of single channel seismic reflection data from ice station T-3 (1967-74) acquired over the submarine Alpha Ridge in the central Arctic Ocean, supplemented by new multi-channel data, show spatially restricted massive disturbance of sub-bottom sediments within a 200 x 600 km area. Deposits have been locally disrupted down to at least 500 meter below the bottom, and have suffered intensive local erosion. Mass wasting is abundant. At this point, we are not able to neither document a likely cause for each of these types of stratigraphic disturbance nor a direct relationship between them. However, we note that: 1) tectonic movements normally involve the whole stratigraphic column and are not depth limited as observed here; 2) ground motion may trigger mass wasting, but is less likely to generate intense bottom current erosion; and 3) enhanced bottom currents are basin-wide phenomena and only disrupt stratigraphic continuity down to the deepest erosion level. As a working hypothesis, we suggest the spectrum and scale of drastic, spatially restricted and apparently geologically short-lived environmental changes are best explained by the effect of a shock wave from impact of an extra-terrestrial body into the central Arctic Ocean, the T3-Healy asteroid. The timing of an impact is unknown, but may be ?Plio-Pleistocene. Healy-2005 seismic team: Tore Arthun, Hans Berge, Vibeke Bruvoll and Erik Grindvoll of University of Bergen, Norway, Hedda Breien, University of Oslo, Norway, Dayton Dove, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Paul Henkart, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA, Nina Ivanova, University of Uppsala, Sweden, Fredrik Ludvigsen, Thor Heyerdahl High School, Larvik, Norway, and Karina Monsen, Alta High School, Alta, Norway.