Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Huge impact crater found in Egypt



Huge impact crater found in Egypt










The crater dwarfs the next largest known Saharan crater









years ago has been discovered in Egypt's western desert. Boston University experts found the 31km (19 mile) wide crater while studying satellite images of the area. It is more than twice the size of the next largest Saharan impact depression and more than 25 times the size of Arizona's famous Meteor Crater.

The American team that found it says its sheer size may have helped it escape detection all these years.

The structure, which has an outer rim surrounding an inner ring, has been named "Kebira", which means "large" in Arabic and also relates to the crater's physical location on the northern tip of the Gilf Kebir region in southwest Egypt.

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Desert glass

Water and wind erosion may also have helped hide its extra-terrestrial origin.







Meteor (Barringer) Crater, Nasa
Meteor Crater is probably the most studied impact structure on Earth



The heat from this impact may be responsible for the extensive field of "Desert Glass", yellow-green silica glass fragments found on the desert surface between the giant dunes of the Great Sand Sea in southwestern Egypt.


The crater's vast area suggests the location may have been hit by a meteorite equivalent in size to the diameter of the famous Meteor (or Barringer) Crater in Arizona which is 1.2km across.

The impact would have wreaked devastation for hundreds of kilometres. - BBC

Some say these things are evidence of ancient nuclear wars.

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