Some years ago while working in Cancun I observed a strange and inexplicable limestone breccia formation that occurred in botanically interesting shallow surface pans, but not elsewhere. It was a 4" to 12" thick surface layer of hard white fossiliferous limestone filled with jagged clastic chunks of what looks like gray dolomite to me. The whole thing screamed high energy ejecta, no rounded edges on the inclusions, and the inclusions rarely touch each other. It looks like the kind of thing you would associate with a violent volcanic mudflow, or an extraterrestrial impact as in Kaboom! Sploosh! I ran it up the TAGnet flagpole in 2007 and got several interesting responses from geologists but no definitive answers. Everyone agreed that high energy was involved, i.e., no progressive sorting, just one big event. “ Calichification” could possibly explain why it is so much harder and more resistant than the underlying limestone, but what of the chunks? One person suggested reef facies and hurricanes, but that is not how it looks to me. Another suggested calcite cementation around breakdown in a sinkhole, but there is no evidence of that. The elephant in the room is Chicxulub, but isn’t all that a kilometer underground? What exactly is the age of the surface deposits in the Yucatan? Now Jim Conrad, who lives in the Yucatan and writes the wise and wonderful Naturalist Newsletter (Subscribe at: _http://www.backyardnature.net/news/natnat.php_ (http://www.backyardnature.net/news/natnat.php) ) has observed something similar in a roadcut near Chichen Itza, evidence of gratuitous limestone violence! It is all a great mystery! Y’all GeoTexicans are the ones I should have asked in the first place. I kept some of the mystery rocks and have just taken macro photos. Shoot me an email and I will send my photos, Jim’s photo, and all my notes and responses for your analysis. The consensus thus far is that the shallow pans where these strange rocks occur are actually alien landing pads. That would also explain the Mayans. Alternative explanations would be appreciated. Sleazeweazel
