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Huge Crater Found in Egypt - Kebira
Space.com ^ | 3/3/06 | Robert Roy Britt

Posted on 03/03/2006 8:58:45 PM PST by 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.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 18thdynasty; amarna; bolide; catastrophism; crater; dakhlaglass; dakhlaoasis; egypt; gilfkebir; godsgravesglyphs; greatsandsea; huge; impact; kebira; kebiracrater; markboslough; qattaracanal; stalactites; stalagmites
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Landsat image (color composite) of the newfound Kebira Crater in the Western Desert of Egypt at the border with Libya. The outer rim of the crater is about 19 miles (31 km) in diameter. Image courtesy of Boston University Center for Remote Sensing


1 posted on 03/03/2006 8:58:47 PM PST by NormsRevenge
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To: NormsRevenge
Yup, we got one of them too ~ right down to the concentric rings ~ the center of the impact is over there on the Delmarva peninsula. You can make out the circular shape by checking out the "FAll LINE" in NJ, PA, MD, VA and NC.

Makes for really interesting subsurface structures too!

2 posted on 03/03/2006 9:03:35 PM PST by muawiyah (-)
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To: NormsRevenge

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

Pre-Bush's fault for sure.


3 posted on 03/03/2006 9:04:11 PM PST by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: NormsRevenge

24° 40' 23.24" N, 24° 57' 51.02" E on Google Earth


4 posted on 03/03/2006 9:05:49 PM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: muawiyah

Any pictures of that?


5 posted on 03/03/2006 9:06:50 PM PST by sonsofliberty2000
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To: muawiyah; sonsofliberty2000

Here's some info on the Chesapeake crater

http://www.unb.ca/passc/ImpactDatabase/images/chesapeake.htm


6 posted on 03/03/2006 9:11:22 PM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Monthly Donor spoken Here. Go to ... https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: NormsRevenge

Great post!


7 posted on 03/03/2006 9:11:50 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: NormsRevenge

I wonder what proof exists this is not an older sinkhole, or simply an indentation from that great knuckleball emanating from the Big Bang.


8 posted on 03/03/2006 9:15:12 PM PST by Cvengr (<;^))
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To: NormsRevenge
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.

It seems that with this crater from a space rock and all of the other similar collisions that the earth has endured during its history, that there should be no signs of life on the planet.
9 posted on 03/03/2006 9:15:24 PM PST by adorno
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To: NormsRevenge

great post,thanks


10 posted on 03/03/2006 9:16:25 PM PST by Flavius (Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum)
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To: NormsRevenge

How was this just discovered now? 19 mile diameter - are we gonna find another "New World" again?


11 posted on 03/03/2006 9:17:37 PM PST by BostonianRightist (I probably haven't read the entire article, or checked my html.)
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To: BostonianRightist
How was this just discovered now? 19 mile diameter - are we gonna find another "New World" again?

Good point!

Hey, maybe if we keep looking hard enough from space, we'll eventually find the Lost City of Atlantis the same way.
12 posted on 03/03/2006 9:21:47 PM PST by adorno
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To: NormsRevenge
"... The crater was discovered in satellite images by Boston University researchers Farouk El-Baz..."

Also known as 'Apollo space program legend Dr. Farouk El-Baz'.

13 posted on 03/03/2006 9:22:21 PM PST by The KG9 Kid (Semper Fi!)
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To: blam; SunkenCiv

Kibera crater ping


14 posted on 03/03/2006 9:22:26 PM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Monthly Donor spoken Here. Go to ... https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: muawiyah

Can you tell em more about that ? Never heard of it .


15 posted on 03/03/2006 9:25:22 PM PST by binkdeville
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To: The KG9 Kid

http://www.bu.edu/remotesensing/Faculty/El-Baz/FEBbio.html

Dr. Farouk El-Baz

He's been doing this kind of stuff a long time.


16 posted on 03/03/2006 9:27:06 PM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Monthly Donor spoken Here. Go to ... https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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Dr. Eman Ghoneim

http://www.bu.edu/remotesensing/Faculty/Ghoneim/

She's the youngster of the pair who discovered Kibera.


17 posted on 03/03/2006 9:28:52 PM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Monthly Donor spoken Here. Go to ... https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: BostonianRightist

There are likely quite a few more craters to be identified.

As to new worlds, ya never know what lies beneath our feet or the waves... and how new technologies can help us locate them.


18 posted on 03/03/2006 9:31:26 PM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Monthly Donor spoken Here. Go to ... https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: adorno

There was one theory I heard, long ago, that Earth was fertile, but lacked that spark for life to begin - kind of like an unfertilized egg.

Without the event of the meteor collisions, the essential element(s) for life weren't present.


19 posted on 03/03/2006 9:31:29 PM PST by Old Sarge (Fobbit = REMF ... how do you like me now?)
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To: NormsRevenge

Wow! Even with the circle around it, though, it seems kind of hard to miss.

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


20 posted on 03/03/2006 9:32:23 PM PST by Right Wing Assault ("..this administration is planning a 'Right Wing Assault' on values and ideals.." - John Kerry)
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