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Unrecorded Meteorite Crater Found On Mount Ararat?

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  • Unrecorded Meteorite Crater Found On Mount Ararat?

    UNRECORDED METEORITE CRATER FOUND ON MOUNT ARARAT?

    MIT Technology Review
    http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26039/?p1=Blogs
    Nov 18 2010

    The discovery of an unrecorded crater raises the possibility that
    the biblical mountain was struck by a meteorite, say physicists

    kfc 11/18/2010

    Mount Ararat is an ancient, isolated volcano in eastern Turkey near the
    borders with Iran and Armenia. According to the Bible, the mountain
    is the final resting place of Noah's Ark. Many an expedition has
    tried and failed to find the Ark's remains.

    The northern and western slopes of the mountain are closed to public
    so how two physicists gained access is anybody's guess. However, today
    Vahe Gurzadyan from the Yerevan Physics Institute in Armenia and Sverre
    Aarseth from the University of Cambridge in the UK, publish an account
    of a remarkable discovery they made while walking in the region.

    At an altitude of 2100 metre, at coordinates 39Ë~Z 47' 30"N, 44Ë~Z 14'
    40"E, they found a well-preserved and previously unrecorded crater
    some 70 metres across. (Google Earth is of little use. The resolution
    of the imagery at this location is poor.) That's a decent size for a
    crater that has gone unnoticed for so long (although new craters of
    this kind of size do turn up from time to time.)

    The question of course is how this crater was formed. One possibility
    is that the crater is volcanic. But Gurzadyan and Aarseth raise
    another: that it is the result of a meteorite impact. They rule out
    a glacial origin on the grounds that 2100 metres is well below the
    glacier line.

    Gurzadyan and Aarseth publish their account with the intention of
    attracting interest so that the crater can be properly classified.

    New craters are important because they help determine how heavily
    the Earth has been bombarded in the past. And while small craters are
    far more numerous than big ones on other bodies in the Solar System,
    the opposite is true on Earth because small ones tend to be eroded
    away more quickly.

    Interestingly, the crater wasn't their only discovery during their
    trip. Because the region is closed, it is virtually unexplored.

    Gurzadyan and Aarseth say they also stumbled across the remains of
    a 5th or 6th century Armenian basilica that is unknown to experts.

    Sounds like an adventure in the making for anybody with the time and
    inclination to go. (And with the necessary permits, of course.)




    From: A. Papazian
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