Years after rocks were collected, they confirm asteroid impact…

The Las Cruces Trail, and later the Panama Railroad, and still later the Panama Canal's Culebra Cut, made their way through Culebra Pass, the low point on the Continental Divide as it runs through Panama.

Now microscopic examination of rocks found more than a decade ago near Gamboa has confirmed that the area was the scene of one of the largest asteroid impacts in Earth's geological record. So did Culebra Pass become the low point along Panama's spine, and thus the best place to build the canal, with a little celestial help?

Read more about Panama's ancient history as a celestial impact zone at: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news119.html and http://home.earthlink.net/~sirleonis/panama.html .

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