Chesapeake Invader

by C. Wylie Poag

Thirty-five million years ago, a meteorite three miles wide and moving sixty times faster than a bullet slammed into the sea bed near what is now Chesapeake Bay. The impact, more powerful than the combined explosion of every nuclear bomb on Earth, blasted out a crater fifty miles wide and one mile deep. Shock waves radiated through the Earth for thousands of miles, shaking the foundations of the Appalachians, as gigantic waves and winds of white-hot debris transformed the eastern seaboard into a lifeless wasteland. Chesapeake Invader is the story of this cataclysm, told by the man who discovered it happened. Wylie Poag, a senior scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, explains when and why the catastrophe occurred, what destruction it caused, how scientists unearthed evidence of the impact, and how the meteorite's effects are felt even today. Poag begins by reviewing how scientists in the decades after World War II uncovered a series of seemingly inexplicable geological features along the Virginia coast. As he worked to interpret one of these puzzling findings in the 1980s in his own field of paleontology, Poag began to suspect that the underlying explanation was the impact of a giant meteorite. He guides us along the path that he and dozens of colleagues subsequently followed as--in true scientific tradition--they combined seemingly outrageous hypotheses, painstaking research, and equal parts good and bad luck as they worked toward the discovery of what turned out to be the largest impact crater in the U.S. We join Poag in the lab, on deep-sea drilling ships, on the road for clues in Virginia, and in heated debates about his findings. He introduces us in clear, accessible language to the science behind meteorite impacts, to life and death on Earth thirty-five million years ago, and to the ways in which the meteorite shaped the Chesapeake Bay area by, for example, determining the Bay's very location and creating the notoriously briny groundwater underneath Virginia. This is a compelling work of geological detective work and a paean to the joys and satisfactions of a life in science.

Originally published in 1999.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Genres: Nonfiction

168 pages, Hardcover

First published October 18, 1999

Reviews

[William Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the author, a senior research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, notes, Chicken Little was right—the sky is falling. To be a bit more accurate, of course, we should say that meteorites are falling through the sky, and Chesapeake Invader provides the reader with a clearly detailed description of the aftermath of such a fall. However, that's not all this book delivers for Poag also regales us with the tale of how the aftermath, a crater 50 miles wide and a mile deep, buried under a thousand feet of sediment and partly beneath the Atlantic Ocean, was discovered.

The book is part autobiography since the author was intimately engaged in the research that revealed the location and extent of the 35 million year old crater, part earth science since the story involves geological eras and goes all the way back to the supercontinent of Pangaea and the Earth-girdling ocean of Panthalassa, and part astronomy with its explanation of the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter and of the Oort Cloud beyond Pluto. There is some paleontology here as well as explanations of deep drilling techniques to retrieve core samples, seismic mapping, tektites, shocked quartz, and aquifers.

Anything more? Oh, yes. The reader will become more knowledgeable of breccia, annular troughs, peak rings, and foraminifera such as microfossils and nannofossils. How all of these elements are used to explore the location and configuration of a deeply buried impact crater comprises a rather fascinating look at the “scientific method” in action.

I've cherrypicked some lengthy and unusual terminology from the book to throw around in this review, and I do hope that I have not scared anyone away. The author does a fantastic job of relating the research, the problems encountered, and the results in a clear and interesting manner. Chesapeake Invader is anything but a dense, technical science textbook. On the contrary, the text is not only readable but is also supplemented with numerous photographs and drawings to illustrate precisely what is being described.

Poag has succeeded in explaining scientific terminology, concepts, observations, and accomplishments in a way clearly comprehensible to the general reader. While my reading interests generally tend toward the humanities, particularly history, I found this “science book” to be informative, interesting, and thoroughly accessible. I shall pick only two minor nits that I found a bit bothersome: The first person pronoun is perhaps overused, and other scientists are frequently referred to by their first names, a practice that struck me as overly familiar and somewhat too informal for a book such as this.

No qualms attend my recommendation of Chesapeake Invader as a book worthy of one's time and attention. It is, as previously observed, directed toward the general reader, to whom it communicates well, but it may be perceived as slightly superficial to a professional in the geological sciences. On the other hand, the book is quite relevant to anyone who would care to learn a bit more about asteroids, comets and meteors and their impact (literally!) upon the Earth.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up practically on the Chesapeake Bay, Forty odd years in in Baltimore and never heard this story of a meteorite creating the Bay. A bit dry in parts with Geologic terms and concepts, but, all well explained....