Name/Title
S04.03.004Description
A specimen of fractured Ordovician limestone from the Serpent Mound Impact Structure. The specimen was collected by Stephen P. Reidel as part of the research for his Geology of the Serpent Mound Cryptoexplosion Structure a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree of Master of Science to the University of Cincinnati in 1972. The location given is approximate to the central point of the structure based on the specimen being collected by Dr. Reidel at the Serpent Mound Impact Structure, but the exact location in the structure not available at this time.
The Serpent Mound Impact Structure is an approximately 9-mile-diameter area of highly disturbed and structurally deformed bedrock at the intersection of Adams, Highland and Pike counties. The area of the impact structure has dolomite, shale, limestone, sandstone, and siltstone lithologies. Because of the geologic forces that have acted on the site of the impact crater, bedrock in the area is a mixture of uplifted, down dropped, faulted, folded and eroded rock from the Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian and Mississippian Geologic Periods. The deeply eroded crater is believed to have been formed by an asteroid or a comet impact approximately 250 to 300 million years ago. It is named the Serpent Mound Impact Structure after the prehistoric American Indian effigy earthwork located near the southwestern edge of the area. It is the single-most complex geologic structure exposed at the surface in Ohio. Investigation of the impact structure has been done using rock cores, seismic data, geophysical surveys and remote satellite imagery for the area.
This slide image included in the USGS National Digital Catalog for NGGDPP Grant G15AP00115 in FY2015.Context
Fractured limestone sample laid out; small ruler is at the top of sample. From Serpent Mound Impact Structure in Adams County, Ohio.