THE FLYNN CREEK METEORITE IMPACT SITE AND CHANGING VIEWS ON IMPACT CRATERING

Abstract

Flynn Creek is one of two confirmed meteorite impact sites in Tennessee, USA. The first published mention of the Flynn Creek Structure was by J.M. Safford, Tennessee's State Geologist, in his <italic>Geology of Tennessee</italic> (1869). Subsequently, the site was investigated briefly in the 1920s and 1930s, but it was only in the 1960s following the founding of the United States Geological Survey's Astrogeological Studies Group as a lead-up to manned lunar exploration that Flynn Creek assumed international importance. This was because it was seen as the best terrestrial analog of a 'typical lunar crater'. As a result, CALTECH graduate student D.J. Roddy used Flynn Creek as the focus of his Ph.D. research, under the supervision of the Group's leader, Gene Shoemaker. After graduating, Roddy continued to conduct on-going investigations at this site up until the time of his death in 2002. Roddy's research has provided a wealth of information regarding the formation and structural features of the Flynn Creek site and shown that the crater was formed during Middle to Late Devonian times as a result of a shallow marine impact. Impact folding and faulting and subsequent uplift and erosion led to the formation of a system of caves at Flynn Creek that is unique among US impact sites.