Science / Medicine : Evidence of a Massive Wave

Researchers reported evidence last week that a massive ocean wave, perhaps as tall as 300 feet, crashed against the Texas coast 66 million years ago and that it may be have been triggered by a large comet, asteroid or meteorite that hit the Atlantic ocean.

Thor A. Hansen, a geologist at Western Washington University, said that he and another researcher found evidence that the huge wave scoured the floor of an enlarged and primitive Gulf of Mexico, picked up sand and shark’s teeth, and then dumped the material in a deposit that is now a central Texas creek bed.

The deposit, he said, was found in what is called the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, a geologic formation formed 66 million years ago. Hansen said the formation he found in the Texas creek bed is rich in iridium, an element in meteorites but not naturally on Earth.

“Circumstantial evidence,” he said, leads to the theory that a meteorite striking the ocean caused the wave because there is no geologic evidence suggesting that a volcano or an earthquake could have triggered the wave. The study was published Friday in Science.