Malcolm LeCompte

"Other four men?" "Skeptically Interrogated." Not sure to what is being referred here. Please provide more details. I or surely Phil, would be happy to answer as best we can.

Is that highway 40? or the road further southeast that we traveled last season? Were you on on the southeast or southwest side of the road? Can you provide some geographic coordinates for the locations you visited? If on the southeast side and closer to the hills, I wouldn't expect to see too much. Assuming the initial surface-discovery of undatable, melt-rock at Mweis was to the west or west-northwest of that general location, I'd anticipate more promising results in the vicinity of that general area and progressively further west. Looks like there are a few wadis just north of the dead sea over which Route 65 passes. Two of those are on a bearing of roughly 226 and 234 degrees southeast of the top of the Tall at a distance of about 9 to 10 km. I'd expect those to produce some possibly datable stratigraphy, perhaps containing artifacts to provide a temporal context with any layers of interest. Good luck

Is that highway 40? or the road further south that we traveled last season? Were you on on the southeast or southwest side of the road? If on the south-east side closer to the hills, I wouldn't expect to see too much. Assuming the initial surface-discovery of undatable, melt-rock was to the northwest of that general location, I'd anticipate more promising results in that general area. Looks like there are a few wadis just north of the dead sea over which Route 65 passes. Two of these are on a bearing of roughly 226 and 234 degrees southeast of the top of the Tall at a distance of about 9 to 10 km. I'd expect those to produce some possibly datable stratigraphy, perhaps containing artifacts to provide a temporal context with any layers of interest. Good luck

Is that highway 40? or the road further south we traversed last season? In that case were you on the Southeast or Northwest side of the road? Some coordinates of sites that you examined would be helpful If closer to the hills to the Southeast, I wouldn't expect to see too much, assuming the initial undated surface-discovery of melt rock was to the northwest of that general location, right? Looks like there are a few wadis just north of the dead sea over which Route 65 passes. They are on a bearing of roughly 226 & 234 degrees southwest and a distance of about 9 to 10 km from the top of the Tall. I'd anticipate those wadis to produce stratigraphic exposures and possible artifacts to provide a temporal context to motivate sampling. Don't key too much on the visual aspects of the stratigraphy. Stratigraphy can be very deceptive. And Please don't consider fire as anything but fire. It is not a reliable event marker. It's just one clue. Malcolm

I should have added that a primary motivation for Phil's survey derives from the fact that the impact science community will typically and appropriately not accept a single example of an impact-marker's presence at a proposed impact site. Such marker's must be found in sufficient abundance (more than just a few examples) and in a context that eliminates any doubt of modern contamination.

Frank, Thanks for the comment. The discovery of Trinitite is particularly important for this research but the one non-artifact example we currently possess was found a few kilometers nearer the Dead Sea than is Tall el Hammam. The vitrified Potsherds are also rare and their occurrence and discovery most likely depend upon their pre-event circumstances: Did the pottery happen to be exposed to the primary heat impulse of an airburst. I expect subsequent excavation at Tall el Hammam will recover more of these vitrified potsherds but these are likely to remain rare. To me, the importance of Phil's proposed work is in the opportunity it presents to make a more detailed survey of the landscape between Tall el Hammam and the Dead Sea, with an emphasis on the land nearest the Dead Sea. Discovery of significant deposits of glassy-sediment is a real possibility on this survey and would be extremely important as an indicator of the location of the air burst's epicenter and the magnitude of the energy released.