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Title: Chesapeake Invader by C. Wylie Poag ISBN: 0-691-00919-8 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 18 October, 1999 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (4 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: America's biggest meteor strike unmasked.
Comment: The book presents an interesting first-person study of how the 53 mile-wide Chesapeake impact structure was identified. The 40-million year-old feature is not apparent from surface observation, and its unmasking forms this classic tale of scientific detective work at is finest. The author is not hesitant in issuing praise to those who knew some atypical feature was present, but who lacked the means or opportunity to categorically identify the structure for what it was. In this respect, the narrative is delightfully free of much of the acrimony that has marked so many of the works about the Chixulub dinosaur killer.

The book's text is highly readable and explains in an unpatronizing manner many of the tools and concepts used in solving this great scientific puzzle. Also, the book's author doesn't allow himself to be bogged down in minutiae, an all-to-easy peril in a work of this nature.

The book is recommended to any teen or adult with a limited background in science, and to any and all persons with an interest in earth science or the scientific method in action. I liked it very much. Enjoy.

Rating: 5
Summary: I Love A Good Mystery
Comment: Geology is a fun science and part of the fun is due to the historical nature of much of geology - geology is all about solving ancient mysteries. Chesapeake Invader by C. Wylie Poag excellenty describes the solving of one such geological mystery. Starting in the middle of the 20th-Century, geologists began to find unusual rock formations in coastal Virginia that didn't have a garden variety geologic explanation. The plate tectonics revolution, which provided so many solutions to so many geologic conundrums, didn't unravel these weird East Coast rocks. This mystery had to wait until humans wrapped their minds around one of the last great discoveries of geology, the realization that asteroid and comet impacts are an important force in our Solar System and that the Earth is not immune from the devastation of these impacts. Poag gives the reader a good glimpse of how geologists [and scientists in general] go about solving problems. Folks who enjoy learning about impacts, but are tired of reading about the end of Cretaceous impact, should enjoy Chesapeake Invader as a welcome change of pace. [If you haven't read enough about the end of Cretaceous impact, I would highly recommend The End Of The Dinosaurs by Charles Frankel and Night Comes To The Cretaceous by James Lawrence Powell.] I enjoyed going along for the ride while C. Wylie Poag solved this great geological mystery and I recommend that you also take this ride.

Rating: 5
Summary: Good science, readable science
Comment: This book is well-written non-fiction.

Poag tells of a fifty-year geological research project on the East Coast of North America. He tells us how the findings of several natural sciences have combined to demonstrate, beyond reasonable doubt, that a large meteor impacted Earth at Chesapeake Bay, some 35 million years ago. In doing so, Poag teaches the reader about undersea sonic surveying, about core drilling to determine the structures surrounding impact craters of various types, about fossils found in seabed (and former seabed) rocks, and about how those fossils permit approximate dating of sedimentary deposits back to life's origin on earth, some 4 billion years ago.

We now know that large meteor impacts have played a major role in the Earth's evolution. Striking only 35 million years back, Poag's "Chesapeake Invader" was a relatively recent such event. In its closing chapter, his book addresses the present NASA search for the NEXT one.