earth science

Toms Canyon impact crater

Toms Canyon impact crater is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Toms Canyon impact crater rather than just read about it. In short: The Toms Canyon impact crater is a probable impact crater where one or more asteroids struck the Atlantic continental shelf, about 100 miles (160 km) east of Atlantic City, New Jersey. The submarine canyon is the drowned glacial-age mouth of Toms River.

Key takeaways

Toms Canyon impact crater belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Toms Canyon impact crater to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Toms Canyon impact crater from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Toms Canyon impact crater is a probable impact crater where one or more asteroids struck the Atlantic continental shelf, about 100 miles (160 km) east of Atlantic City, New Jersey. The submarine canyon is the drowned glacial-age mouth of Toms River. The crater dates to the late Eocene geological time period (about 35 million years ago), and may have been formed by the same event as the larger Chesapeake Bay impact crater (and possibly the Popigai impact structure in Siberia), 200 miles (320 km) to the southwest at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, also dating to the late Eocene. Seismic reflection profiles, studied by USGS scientists, show that the crater was formed by an object or objects which struck from the southwest at a glancing angle and formed a long, oval crater. Since impact, sediment filled part of the crater, giving it its present triangular shape.

See also List of possible impact structures on Earth

References

Bibliography Poag, C. Wiley. Chesapeake Invader: Discovering America's Giant Meteorite Crater. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-691-00919-8

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Toms Canyon impact crater

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Toms Canyon impact crater claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Toms Canyon impact crater before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Toms Canyon impact crater ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Toms Canyon impact crater

In research: Toms Canyon impact crater appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Toms Canyon impact crater in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Toms Canyon impact crater is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Eocene impact craters, Geology of New Jersey, Impact craters of the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Toms Canyon impact crater outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Toms Canyon impact crater in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Toms Canyon impact crater means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Toms Canyon impact crater out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Toms Canyon impact crater in simple terms?

Why does Toms Canyon impact crater matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Toms Canyon impact crater?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Toms Canyon impact crater.