Thaindian News

By Madhuri Dey
July 31, (THAINDIAN NEWS) The Google ogle has ultimately paid off. As per reports, the Google Earth images have helped researchers to discover a well preserved meteor crater in Egypt. The crater was noticed by Vincenzo de Michele, a former curator of the Civico Museo di Storia Naturale, back in 2008 in Google Earth images. Researchers have been able to locate the meteor crater in a remote corner of southwestern Sahara desert. While most of the craters found are worn out by natural erosion, this 148 foot wide crater has amazed the researchers with its pristine condition. The Egypt crater that has been named Kamil Crater is believed to be one of the most well preserved craters till date. The crater still retains many features of meteor crater like the rays of ejected debris.

The Kamil Crater of Egypt is about 45 meters wide (roughly 140 feet) and around 16 meters deep (about 50 feet). Keeping in mind the climate of Sahara desert and the pristine nature of the crater, scientists have estimated that the meteor crater is less than 5,000 years old. The scientists have also suggested that the Kamil Crater was created by the high-speed impact of an iron meteorite. It is only further researches on the crater that will be able to reveal the exact kind of meteor that had created the huge impact on earth’s surface.

Luigi Folco, meteorite curator from Museo Nazionale dell’Antartide in Siena, Italy has said to media sources that the prominence of the crater has surprised the scientists. He added that such detailed craters are found in moon where there are no atmospheric changes as such to wear the crater.