The Kamil Crater in Egypt
(Gebel Kamil 22°01’06″N 26°05’16″E)
Analyses suggest this 45-meter-wide crater in southwestern Egypt, first spotted on Google Earth late in 2008, probably was formed in the last 5,000 years.
Image; National Museum of the Antarctic, University of Siena
The Crater on Google earth. http://www.ogleearth.com/2010/07/newly_discovere.html?
Although the crater was first noticed in autumn 2008, researchers have since spotted the blemish on satellite images taken as far back as 1972, says Luigi Folco, a cosmochemist at the University of Siena in Italy. He and his colleagues report their find online July 22 in Science.
During expeditions to the site early in 2009 and again this year, scientists found more than 5,000 iron meteorites that together weigh more than 1.7 tons. The team estimates that the original lump of iron weighed between 5 and 10 metric tons when it slammed into the ground at a speed of around 3.5 kilometers per second, with most of the material vaporizing during the collision. Analyses of soil samples from the site and of sand fused into glass by the impact’s intense heat and pressure may help the team estimate when the event occurred. Preliminary analyses suggest that it happened sometime during the last 10,000 years, probably no more than 5,000 years ago, Folco says.
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