Posted on 03/01/2022 8:06:31 AM PST by Red Badger
The Yilan crater. (NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin/Landsat data/USGS)
A crescent-shaped crater in Northeast China holds the record as the largest impact crater on Earth that formed in the last 100,000 years.
Prior to 2020, the only other impact crater ever discovered in China was found in Xiuyan county of the coastal province of Liaoning, according to a statement from the NASA Earth Observatory.
Then, in July 2021, scientists confirmed that a geological structure in the Lesser Xing'an mountain range had formed as a result of a space rock striking Earth. The team published a description of the newfound impact crater that month in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science.
The Yilan crater measures about 1.15 miles (1.85 kilometers) across and likely formed about 46,000 to 53,000 years ago, based on radiocarbon dating of charcoal and organic lake sediments from the site, the NASA statement says.
Researchers collected these sediment samples by extracting a drill core from the center of the crater, Forbes reported.
Beneath more than 328 feet (100 meters) of layered lake and swamp sediments lay a nearly 1,000-foot-thick (320 m) slab of brecciated granite, which is granite made up of many rocky fragments cemented together in a matrix, the team found. This rock bears telltale scars of having been struck by a meteorite.
For example, fragments of the rock show signs of having melted and recrystallized during the impact, as the granite rapidly heated and then cooled off. Other fragments of the rock escaped this melting process, and instead contain "shocked" quartz that shattered in a distinct pattern when the space rock crashed down, according to Forbes.
The team also uncovered teardrop-shaped glass fragments and pieces of glass pierced with tiny holes made by gas bubbles; both of these features also indicate that a high-intensity impact took place there, according to the NASA statement.
A portion of the Yilan crater's southern rim is missing, so the geological structure looks crescent-shaped from above, the Global Times reported. Such crescent-shaped impact craters are relatively rare on Earth, Chen Ming, one of the authors of the article and a research fellow from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, told the Global Times.
In October 2021, the Landsat-8 satellite captured a striking snapshot of the crater's northern rim, and scientists are now investigating how and when the southern rim disappeared, according to the NASA statement.
The so-called Meteor Crater in Arizona previously held the record for largest impact crater less than 100,000 years old; it's about 49,000 to 50,000 years old and measures 0.75 miles (1.2 km) in diameter. The Xiuyan crater, by comparison, measures 1.1 miles (1.8 km) across, but its age is unknown, Forbes reported.
PinGGG!...................
“...impact crater on Earth that formed in the last 100,000 years....” Formed.... I guess one could say that.
I bet the find Biden ballots
Was China already making Uighur mass graves 50K years ago?
LOL. “Scientists”
There is a huge sort of crater caused by meteor,in Russia somewhere, it is massive. I’ll see if I can find it
Tunguska?........................
This one is 15 miles from me.
“Wetumpka Impact Crater Commission” http://www.wetumpkaimpactcratercommission.org
I did the tour several years ago. It was very interesting.
Yep, but I guess that wasn’t really a crater- it was some 800 plus kil9meters across though
Here’s a link if anyone is interested
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event
South Africa. But much, much older than 100,000 years.
There was the Tunguska Event in Siberia, but it apparently did not leave an actual crater.
Yeah I couldn’t recall well. I remembered it was massive, but I guess it mostly,just leveled the forests.
Too bad the Younger Dryas impacts didn’t leave craters. There’s certainly evidence of an impact 13,000 years ago.
The author and editor certainly have a thing for anything named before they started college.
Hint lady - it is called the Meteor Crater because it was one of the very first meteor craters to have been identified as such.
Started a new field in geology. Other than that ...
Got nothing to do with the patriarchy trying to keep the CCP down.
I have been trying to sort that one out myself.
Apparently with Tunguska mother nature, fate, {Diety} was using hollow-points. The meteor broke up and dumped all it’s energy into the lower atmosphere. The China crater must’ve been from FMJ. ;-)
Thanks Red Badger. A dual ping, so I'm making it a single message.
:oO!
I don’t think there is a crater at Tunguska, because the impact (explosion) was above ground, which is why the trees were flattened.
But I’m not a scientist and I don’t play one on TV, nor am I a close friend of Faulsi.
‘Face
;o]
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