ART IMPACT
Where Art and Science Collide
THE WETUMPKA IMPACT CRATER COMMISSION
Interweaving preservation, promotion and education about the Wetumpka Impact Event, resulting Crater and Cretaceous life of 85 million years ago through programs and partnerships that engage, inspire and bring scientific research and knowledge to life.
art impact is an educational art program about wetumpka, alabama's impact crater, the cretaceous period and related paleoart.
View Our Educational Power Point Presentations
About
Wetumpka, Alabama, sits right on the bull’s eye of the greatest natural disaster in Alabama’s history. The hills just east of downtown are the eroded remains of a five mile wide Impact Crater that was blasted into the bedrock of Elmore County. The mighty blast occurred near the end of the Age of the Dinosaurs, about 85 million years ago. All around the circular pattern of hills that make up the remaining rim of the crater, the hard rocks of the Piedmont are bent sharply and point away from the center of the impact. The normally horizontal layers of more recent surface rocks are mixed in and around the crater, sugesting an incredible explosion that would have destroyed all life for a radius of about forty miles.
When Dinosaurs Roamed Art Video
click the arrow to start
Annual Guided
Crater Tours
Each year the Wetumpka Crater Commission hosts Crater Tours, which are lead by graduate students of geology from Auburn University. Crater Tours are usually scheduled for late February or early March. To learn more, please contact the City of Wetumpka @
334-567-5147.
Lecture
Annual Lecture:
Dr. King
Thursday, February 22, 2024 @ 6:30 PM
Wetumpka Civic Center
Wetumpka, Alabama
Guided Crater Tour Schedule
School Crater Tours
TBA
Public Crater Tours
Friday
February 23, 2024
Tour 1 - 11:30am
Tour 2 - 1:15pm
Saturday
February 24, 2024
Tour 1 - 9am
Tour 2 - 10:45am
Tour 3 - 12:55p
Meet @
Trinity Episcopal Church
Click on the image below to view the Coosa River Whitewater Section Map and Wetumpka Impact Crater Location
Click on the image below to view a larger version of the Wetumpka Outdoor Map with the Wetumpka Impact Crater.
Project Goals:
Site Specific Art Featuring Cretaceous Life, Impact Events & Crater Related Installations
Art projects will depict aspects of Cretaceous Natural History, the Wetumpka Impact Event and resulting Wetumpka Impact Crater; illustrating Cretaceous life and what happened 85 million years ago. Our goal is to make the art and science of Cretaceous Alabama & the Wetumpka Meteor Impact more accessible to a wider public. With the creation of unique and period correct visual art, landscape graphic designs, illustrations, sculptures and technology by Alabama artists, we want to invite visitors of all backgrounds for a fascinating immersive and educational journey into the past while exploring the relationship between the resulting Cretaceous crater and the effects to climate, land, plants, animals and the world today.
Projects
New Art Works, Power Point Presentations, Videos, Brochures & Books
Commission of 15 new works depicting the sequence of events that created the Wetumpka Impact Crater during the Cretaceous period. These will accompany other images in our permanent collection to complete the pictorial sequence by our artists.
Commission of 12 Mural Panels for guided & self-guided educational tours. Murals will depict the sequence of events that created the Wetumpka Impact Crater during the Cretaceous period.
Commission of photographic images of the educational viewpoints of the Wetumpka Impact Crater today. The photographic works will become a part of our permanent collection & used in promotional materials & presentations.
Wetumpka Impact Crater: Children’s Educational Animated Power Point & Movie
Wetumpka Impact Crater: Children’s Educational Brochure
Dino Doodles: Children’s Educational Brochure
Wetumpka Impact Crater HS, College & Adult Power Point Presentation & Lectures
New Educational Storyboards
See the Wetumpka Impact Crater: A Self-Guided Tour Brochure With Photographs of the Crater today
Wetumpka Impact Crater Art Book
(online) A Pictorial Journey
Wetumpka Impact Crater Book
Featuring the Crater’s History, Impact Events, Research, Technical Illustrations, Alabama’s Cretaceous Dinosaurs, Art & Artists.