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Friday, July 23, 2010

Meteorite impacted in Egypt in the last 5000 years



A large "fresh" meteorite impact crater has been discovered in SW Egypt with the aid of Google Earth.



The crater is fresh enough to still show the radial marks so common in lunar craters, where erosion is most slow. This leads researchers to claim preliminarily that the crater is not older than 10,000 years, probably less than 5000.

They estimate that the original meteorite weighted some 5 to 10 metric tons, having recovered 1.7 tons of the iron material.

Source: Science News.

We'll see when the analysis finally dates the impact but I am pondering that it might have some correlation with the series of catastrophic earthquakes that shattered the Mediterranean by the end of the Bronze Age, slightly above 3000 years ago. I also wonder how ancient Egyptians perceived this phenomenon and if there are any records that may make any mention of it.

On second thought another possible catastrophic scenario may be the one related to the sudden end of the Old Kingdom, which is related to drastic climate fluctuations worldwide. If so, it would date to c. 2200 BCE.

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