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GN38528AR

علوم

العثور على حفرة نيزكية تحت الجليد في غرينلاند

By Jordi Bou

November 15, 2018 - What could be a large meteorite impact crater has been discovered beneath the Greenland ice sheet. If confirmed, it would be the first ever located below a continental ice sheet.

Investigations suggest the feature, found under the Hiawatha Glacier, was probably dug out by a 1.5km-wide iron asteroid
between about 12,000 and three million years ago.

The impact of such meteorite would have had significant ripple effects in the region, possible even globally.

A team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen's Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark first spotted the crater in July 2015.

The 31km-wide depression came to light when scientists examined radar images of the island's bedrock.

The initial finding was made with data from NASA’s Program for Arctic Regional Climate Assessment and Operation IceBridge.

More data was collected since then, using more advanced radar technology by the Alfred Wegener Institute’s Polar 6 research aircraft.

The sepresion is larger than Washington DC and would rank among the top 25 known craters in the world.

Sources
PUBLISHED:15/11/2018; STORY: Graphic News; ADDITIONAL ARTWORK: NASA/Jefferson Beck, Nasa/Cryospheric Sciences Lab/Natural History Museum of Denmark
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