[meteorite-list] Geologists Discover Impact Crater in India

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Oct 23 17:43:01 2006
Message-ID: <200610232142.OAA20330_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=102452

Geologists discover 'impact' crater in Rann of Kutch
The Navhind Times (India)
October 23, 2006

New Delhi, Oct 23: Indian geologists claim to have discovered a possible
impact crater in Kutch district of Gujarat dating back to the Vedic period.

The crater, suspected to have been formed by the impact of an
extra-terrestrial object, is seen as a circular feature near Luna
village in the northwestern Banni Plains of the Great Rann in Kutch
district.

The site -- the third in the country after Lonar in Maharashtra and
Ramgarh in Rajasthan -- is located about a kilometre away from a human
settlement belonging to the Harappan period and may have found reference
in ancient Sanskrit texts, which mention the 'impact of a burning
extraterrestrial object' in western India some 4,000-5,000 years ago.

"While most other recognised craters are located within hard rocks, this
possible impact crater has special significance as it is located within
an extremely low-lying flat terrain comprising unconsolidated soft
sediments, and its appearance is unconventional and deceptive,"
geologists Mr R V Karanth and Mr M S Gadhavi of the M S University of
Baroda said reporting their discovery in `Current Science`, a magazine
published by the Current Science Association and the Indian Academy of
Sciences.

The geologists, along with Mr P S Thakker of the Space Applications
Centre, surveyed the crater and found a dense growth of a variety of
Acacia plant species in the inner part of the rim. Villagers claim the
growth of the wild thorny plants was a recent phenomenon, about three or
four decades old.

The circular crater measures 1.2 km east-west and 1.2 km north-south and
forms a shallow depression filled with sediments and the lowest point of
which is hardly two metres above the mean sea level, they said.

Several lumps of dark and heavy objects -- irregular in shape and having
spherical cavities -- recovered from the rim crater's rim were strongly
attracted to hand magnets, the researchers said.

The objects, after a petrographic study, were classified into three
categories viz -- completely dark and opaque, completely transparent and
isotropic and those obtained from areas comprising both dark-opaque and
transparent-isotropic materials.

Under a microscope, polished dark-opaque (category-I) samples exhibit
thin shimmering lines that apparently resemble "Neumann lines" commonly
observed in iron-nickel meteorites, they said and called for an
"appropriate" analysis of the samples.

The transparent and isotropic samples can be compared to "tektites"
formed on account of melting and immediate solidification into glass of
the material of the impact site due to enormous heat generated, Mr
Karanth said.

After finding meteorite-like objects and suspected "tektites", the
researchers are now planning to launch a search for high-pressure minerals.

They have called for a detailed study of the site, including references
to it in ancient Sanskrit texts to ascertain whether the crater led to
the wiping out of the Harappan civilisation, which flourished between
3000 BC and 1500 BC.

The findings reported by Mr Karanth, Mr Thakker and Mr Gadhavi are
preliminary and detailed study of the samples recovered from the crater
rim is in progress.
Received on Mon 23 Oct 2006 05:42:58 PM PDT