World’s Best Preserved Crater Found Using Google Earth [Crater]

This crater, located in a remote area of the Sahara desert, was discovered by researchers using Google Earth. And that\’s actually not even the good part. Kamil, as the crater known as, may actually be the sector\’s best preserved crater.

The Kamil crater was first spotted back in February when an Italian researcher was surveying satellite images from Google Earth. The crater measures 147 ft at its widest point and 52 ft deep at its deepest. Using those numbers, scientists estimate that the meteor that hit Earth was only 4.2 ft in diameter (but was traveling at 8,000MPH!).

But what stunned scientists was just how pristine the crater was. Typically, craters on the earth erode or get buried over the years as Mother Nature and weather work their magic. On the subject of Kamil, the bowl-shaped crater still had a splatter pattern of bedrock around it. The splatter pattern, generally known as ejecta rays, are more often seen on other planets and moons with thinner atmospheres-not in the world.

According to Luigi Folco, the study leader:

This crater can be a sort of beauty because it\’s so well-preserved that it’s going to tell us loads about small-scale meteorite impacts on the planet\’s crust. It\’s so nice. It\’s so neat. There is something extraordinary about it he said, adding that craters as pristine as Kamil tend to be found only on Mars or on the moon, where there are fewer environmental and atmospheric forces to degrade them.

The scientists estimate that Kamil is simply thousands of years old. Style of crazy to think a freaking crater could stay unknown and untouched for thus long. [Red Orbit]

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This post is tagged: crater, Earth, Found, google, Preserved, using, Worlds