Kebira Crater

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Kebira Crater

Kebira Crater (Arabic: فوهة كبيرة) is the name that has recently been proposed for a circular topographic feature in the Sahara desert. The center of the feature lies in Libya, but the eastern edge extends into Egypt. Its discovery from satellite images was announced in March 2006 by researchers Dr. Farouk El-Baz and Dr. Eman Ghoneim from the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University, who propose that it may be an eroded impact crater (astrobleme). They suggest that the crater's original appearance has been obscured by wind and water erosion over time. Detailed field work will be required in order to test the impact hypothesis.

[edit] Characteristics

The feature has two rings, the outer of which is 31 kilometres (19 mi) in diameter. If it is an impact crater, it is bigger than the largest confirmed impact crater in the region, the Oasis crater in Libya, which is approximately half the size, with a diameter of approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi). It is estimated that a meteorite large enough to have created a Kebira sized crater would have been roughly 1 kilometre (0.75 mi) in diameter. As of 2007, the date of the putative impact has not been determined, but it has been speculated that it may be related to the yellow-green silica glass fragments, known as "Libyan Desert glass", that can be found across part of Egypt's Great Sand Sea.

[edit] Etymology

The name of the purported crater is derived from the Arabic word for "large", and also from its location near the Gilf Kebir ("Great Barrier") region in southwest Egypt.