Melting rocks require a lot of heat, one might think, or seismic reaction to outward forces – but see https://phys.org/news/2021-04-scientists-probe-mysterious-earth-crust.html … which is a story that unsettles your average uniformitarian rendition of events in the past. Geologists have been probing a mysterious piece of earth's crust that has largely avoided pigeon holing. A great belt of igneous rock strata stretches some 2000 miles from British Columbia in Canada to Sonora in Mexico, by way of Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Arizona. In geological thinking belts of igneous rock are generally seen as evidence of former subduction processes. An example is given of the arc of volcanoes running down the spine of western North America, which includes Mount St Helens and Mount Hood etc. Volcanoes are perceived as part and parcel of subduction zones because volcanoes occur along the Mid Atlantic Ridge, thought to be the best example of a subduction zone. However, the belt of igneous rock in question is much further inland – a long way from the coast [and the normal location of a subduction zone]. This illustrates how loosely the Plate Tectonics theory is held together – and yet it dominates modern geological thinking. Be that as it may the belt does seem to cause a problem for the normal interpretations – but only from a Plate Tectonics angle. One key might be the date of formation, at some point between 80 and 50 million years ago. Once again we have a date range that includes an elephant in the room and once again that is the K'Pg boundary event at 65 million years ago. It is said to coincide with a mountain building episode, the Laramide orogeny. This might pay checking out. Could an asteroid strike along the lines of the Chicxulub smash up have caused tidal waves – and mountain building orogeny as well as a lengthy igneous upwelling or melting of the crust. Now, that really would be catastrophism that clearly is not reproduced in the modern world, the lynch pin of uniformitarian thinking. Another point worth noting is that the igneous belt is also rich in ore deposits.
At https://phys.org/news/2021-04-effects-solar-flares-earth-magnetosphere.html … which deals with the effects of solar flares on earth's magnetosphere viz current research.
William also sent in a link to a story on Yahoo concerning a space rock that broke up in the atmosphere over southern Africa, scttering bits across Botswana. The same story is also at https://phys.org/news/2021-04-asteroid-botswana-vesta.html … where the claim is that the meteor may have originated in the recently visited asteroid, Vesta, which had the scars of two collisions at some point in the distant past. The claim is that the 1.5 metre meteor that broke up in the atmosphere had an origin from one of those collisions – which seems a little too convenient one might think. The trajectory of the meteor took it back to the asteroid belt but Vesta may not have been involved – but on the other hand, it is a possibility.
William also sent in a link to www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/comparison-earth-craters-offers-sense-205011692…. … which looks at various craters on the surface of the earth
Meanwhile, a new ESA telescope in South America aims to search for dangerous asteroids – see https://phys.org/news/2021-04-esa-telescope-south-america-dangerous.html … a new telescope in Chile will keep a look out for dangerous meteors, asteroids, and comets, and their remnants and bits and pieces. It seems space hazards are being taken seriously by scientists. There are around 25,000 Near Earth Objects [NEOs] out there, and 900.000 objects classified as asteroids, lurking in our solar system. These are of course the bigger space rocks. There are many other NEOs that are difficult to spot and on earth crossing trajectories. These are also hazards if they strike a big population centre such as a city.