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Ice age crater discovered beneath Greenland glacier
Why is it in news?
- Buried beneath a kilometre of snow and ice in northern Greenland, scientists have uncovered an asteroid impact crater, bigger than the area of Paris.
- This is the first time that a crater of any size has been found under one of Earth’s continental ice sheets.
About Crater
- The researchers worked for the past three years to verify their discovery, initially made in the 2015.
- The crater measures more than 31 km in diameter, placing it among the 25 largest impact craters on Earth.
- It was formed when a kilometre-wide iron meteorite smashed into northern Greenland.
- The crater is exceptionally well-preserved, and that is surprising, because glacier ice is an incredibly efficient erosive agent that would have quickly removed traces of the impact
- So far, it has not been possible to date the crater directly, but its condition strongly suggests that it formed after ice began to cover Greenland, so younger than 3 million years old and possibly as recently as 12,000 years ago — toward the end of the last ice age.
- The crater was first discovered in July 2015 as the researchers inspected a new map of the topography beneath Greenland’s ice-sheet.
- They noticed an enormous, but previously undetected circular depression under Hiawatha Glacier.
- The 20-tonne iron meteorite sits in the courtyard at the Geological Museum in Copenhagen.
Source
The Hindu