An Exploration of the Panther Mountain Crater Impact Using Spatial Data and GIS Spatial Correlation Analysis Techniques

Identification and mapping of hypervelocity impact crater (HICs) sites require significant effort on ground truthing data collection and local instrument‐driven research. The recent advancements in Earth observation (EO) technology and geographical information systems (GIS) have increased our ability to study HICs. With EO imagery and relevant spatial data now readily available online at no cost, GIS and remote sensing provide a very attractive option in investigating the Earth’s surface. In this framework, our study addresses the use of GIS and EO techniques by looking at a possible impact crater in upstate New York, United States. The Panther Mountain crater is thought to have been created by a meteor impact over 300,000 years ago during the Devonian or Mississippian geologic periods. Using freely available data from previous research, this study aimed at mapping land cover and geologic data and analyzing their correlation at Panther Mountain and it surrounding area. Findings of the study have showed encouraging results. A correlation between Panther Mountain’s bedrock geology and vegetation was reported to be higher than the coefficient of the surrounding area. Similarly, the correlation between Panther Mountain’s surficial geology type and vegetation was significantly lower than that of the other region. The significant difference in correlations between the two regions supports the Panther Mountain impact site. All in all, the present study also produced encouraging results as regards to the use of GIS in identifying potential hypervelocity crater sites.