Huge Crater Found in Egypt - Kebira

Space.com ^ | 3/3/06 | Robert Roy Britt

[NormsRevenge]

Scientists have discovered a huge crater in the Saharan desert, the largest one ever found there.

The crater is about 19 miles (31 kilometers) wide, more than twice as big as the next largest Saharan crater known. It utterly dwarfs Meteor Crater in Arizona, which is about three-fourths of a mile (1.2 kilometers) in diameter.

In fact, the newfound crater, in Egypt, was likely carved by a space rock that was itself roughly 0.75 miles wide in an event that would have been quite a shock, destroying everything for hundreds of miles. For comparison, the Chicxulub crater left by a dinosaur-killing asteroid 65 million years ago is estimated to be 100 to 150 miles (160 to 240 kilometers) wide.

The crater was discovered in satellite images by Boston University researchers Farouk El-Baz and Eman Ghoneim.

El-Baz named the crater “Kebira,” which means “large” in Arabic and also relates to its location on the northern tip of the Gilf Kebir region in southwestern Egypt.

“Kebira may have escaped recognition because it is so large—bigger than the area of 125 football fields, or the total expanse of the Cairo urban region from its airport in the northeast to the Pyramids of Giza in the southwest,” El-Baz said today. “Also, the search for craters typically concentrates on small features, especially those that can be identified on the ground. The advantage of a view from space is that it allows us to see regional patterns and the big picture.”

The crater has two rings, a common configuration. Over time, it has been eroded by wind and water to make it unrecognizable to the untrained eye.

“The courses of two ancient rivers run through it from the east and west,” Ghoneim said.

The timing of the impact has not been determined.

The impact that carved Kebira might have created an extensive field of yellow-green silica fragments, known as desert glass and found on the surface between the giant dunes of the Great Sand Sea in southwestern Egypt, the researchers said.

[Right Wing Assault]

I meant 'without'.

[wideminded]

Somewhere in Western Egypt is the Qattara Depression, a large area that is quite far below sea level. IIRC one of the early proposals for the "peaceful use" of nuclear explosives was to blast a channel to the Qattara Depression from the Mediterranean Sea, thus creating a new inland sea and perhaps moderating the climate of the western desert, creating more habitable land in Egypt. Another proposal involves using conventional means to excavate large enough channel from the Mediterranean to allow hydroelectric power to be generated by water descending into the Depression (and then evaporating). Apprently this idea has also been shelved for now.

[GOPJ]

Makes for really interesting subsurface structures too!

What are the subsurface structures like?

[Tzimisce]

I was about to say - 19 miles in diameter would be hard to miss.

[blam]

I wonder if it came at the same time as this one discovered in Iraq when Saddam drained the swamps in the south?

Disaster That Struck The Ancients

Iraq - Dated to 2200BC

[mowowie]

Just saw a movie that centered aroud a huge crater in Australia in a very remote place called Wolfe Creek. Very huge and impressive. Anybody ever seen it?

[seastay]

wonder if the crater this anything to do with this spectacle At the south-east corner of the Ka'bah, near the door, is the famous black stone, which forms a part of the sharp angle of the building, at four or five feet above the ground. The black stone is an irregular oval. about seven inches in diameter, with an undulating surface, composed of about a dozen smaller storm of different shapes and sizes. According to the rites of the pilgrimage, this stone; which is called ar-Ruknu ‘l-Yamani, or Yaman pillar, should only be touched with ,the right hand as the pilgrim passes it, butSir Richard Burton, who made the pilgrimage in disguise in 1853, have suggested that the Black Stone is really a meteorite. www.bible.ca/islam/ islam-meteorite-worship.htm

[Rennes Templar]

meteorite-worship? Oh geez.

[NormsRevenge]

Haven't seen the movie but..

Wolfe Creek..

There are a few more shots to view , Click the pic.

[Havoc]

Good grief. These folks probably spell words in their cherios and look for faces in the shadows of their shag carpets.

[metmom]

I guess this is the day for finding out just how much scientists are really missing. Did you see this post?
Surprise organ discovered in mice Mice are shown to have two thymus organs, not just one
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1589011/posts

[metmom]

Looks like this is the day for scientists finding things, ping

[Chgogal]

Oh, too funny...."Pre-Bush's fault for sure."

:)

[NormsRevenge]

Pattern recognition is a skill that must be honed regularly. ;-)

[Alter Kaker]

Wonder when that hit, because that was for sure almost 4 times the size needed to end all life on earth when it hit.

No, on the contrary, this was only a mile in diameter and would have only caused localized devastation.

[Reverend Bob]

Not quite. Chicxulub is 100-150 miles across. This ones only 19. Big, but not THAT big.

But, yes, I'm sure it was Bush's fault.

[Alter Kaker]

I guess this is the day for finding out just how much scientists are really missing. Did you see this post? Surprise organ discovered in mice Mice are shown to have two thymus organs, not just one

Truly, the only people who miss more observations than scientists, are non-scientists.

[Fruitbat]

Maybe there's a big chunk of rock in there someone could worship.

ROFLMAO!

[Fruitbat]

Good grief. These folks probably spell words in their cherios and look for faces in the shadows of their shag carpets.

Too funny!