billyboblennon
Tourist
Reged: 12/26/05
Posts: 50
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If anyone knows what this is, please let me know. It's driving me crazy. Is it a crater? If it is is it impact or volcanic? Is it a dried lake? Flood basin?
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ReconJones
Tourist
Reged: 12/29/05
Posts: 5
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BillyBob,
Go to the Meteor Crater in Arizona. Among the cloud of blue "i's", there's one or two from people who have catalogued just about every known crater on Earth. Do the thing and see if your south African "crater" is listed. As for me ... I think it actually is an ancient crater.
gene (recon jones) in Albuquerque, NM
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billyboblennon
Tourist
Reged: 12/26/05
Posts: 50
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I've looked in all of the databases I can find and nothing comes up except a potential crater in Yemen in Eastern Yemen, but this isn't it.
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Furry_Phil
Tourist
Reged: 08/14/05
Posts: 152
Loc: Birmingham, UK
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This is one for further investigation. 13 km across and looks pretty old. A couple of points against an impact origin is that the area would have been somewhat geologically active and a crater this size Should be complex (with a central peak or at least the residue of one) although age could remove visible traces of this so don't rule it out yet.
The only way to be completely certain of the origin is for a field study to be conducted.
If anyone has information regarding such a study on this feature I'd love to know.
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"When you're climbing the ladder of success make sure it's against the right building"
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jw67
First Post
Reged: 01/15/06
Posts: 1
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if it is "and it could very well be" it is very very old! it could also be a dried up lake.
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DamOun
Tourist
Reged: 11/08/05
Posts: 25
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Vola You did found something! 
This definately looks like a crater from geomorphological point of view; but it is not of a volcanic origin.
In satellite picture (even eye level of 500km) strongly suggest a crater present (a really really big one!) - unique as of its surrounding. An ancient Crater seems to had form a lake which was filled with sediments with passage of time.
It is amazing to imagine that if it was an impact crater then imagine the tremendous amount of energy released...
What needed is a ground investigation. May be a local geologist could confirm a large meteor impact in pre-historic times..
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B3st R3Gards
DamOun~
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Cintos
Tourist
Reged: 01/27/06
Posts: 57
Loc: Connecticut, USA
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There is strong circular symmetry to this structure when viewed in GE. Is it an illusion? The mountain ridge to the North, the rust-colored arc to the East, the arc of waterways to the west... Attached overlay attempts to rough-out the shape. The structure is even more apparent in another view- from MDA Earthsat (15 m resolution) at terraserver.com. In that "almost grey-scale" view the coloration of the entire structure is apparent as a darker-hued perfect circle contrasted with the surrounding area. This is also the case on the 25m resolution series, but with more color. Both cases looking at 25 km 25 km views. This level of resolution is available for free at this link.
Is the reddish tint infused into the entire complex? - perhaps iron oxide from the impactor?
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"Don't use quotations.
... Tell me what you know." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Hill
Master Guide
Reged: 10/31/04
Posts: 9211
Loc: Southern California
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VictorFromVancouver believes he has found a link between this crater and three (or possibly two) others in Sudan and Ethiopia.
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DamOun
Tourist
Reged: 11/08/05
Posts: 25
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Hi Cintos,
Yes I have noticed the Arc shape redish tint on the Sandstone bed on eastern bank of the crater.
Iron oxide leaching are quite common in arid envoirnment where the cementing material of a sandstone band is ferrogineous but what makes it interesting is its arc shape conjuction with the drainage pattern in the area; suggesting suggests that this sandstone bed is dipping towards west and should not be present on the western bank of the crater.
You will find same brownish or redish tint further to the east of the Redish arc but with low intensity. To me the hunch is that the impact might have increased the rate of the oxidation on these sandstone.
The only verification can be made from field studies.
By the way, attached is a geological map of yemen. It is relatively a poor overlay so sorry about that but what is intertesting is the Impact was on tertiary age deposits.
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B3st R3Gards
DamOun~
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DamOun
Tourist
Reged: 11/08/05
Posts: 25
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Hi Hill,
Thanks for the link, I have gone through the place marks but sadly there is nothing much to investigate or comment about due to low resolution of Landsat images.
But here are some interesting things
Alpha:
Has a dam in its center which can be spoted easily. Unforunately due to lack of high resolution image it is too difficult to say much about the origin of the crater. It can be impact crater.
Beta:
This one is pretty interesting. To me it does not appeal like a Impact crater rather it looks like a local dome structure (??) due to various possible geolgoical activites. No depression is present in the centre.
Gamma:
It is a good candidate of a crater (can be impact) but nothing much to say about.
Thanks for sharing
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B3st R3Gards
DamOun~
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