[meteorite-list] Libyan (looks like a) crater

From: Mark Bowling <minador_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 10:39:07 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <124709.3760.qm_at_web54502.mail.re2.yahoo.com>

Randy,

It does look like a crater! I wouldn't assume it's related to LDG per se, as that glass is found in Egypt. Did he give a rough indication of where in Libya? Wouldn?t an impact site for LDG be a bit larger in scale? The sample looks pretty interesting, but it could be sedimentary in nature because, just looking at the photo, the tiny grains don?t look melted. I would be excited if I found such a feature. Hard to say just from photos.

How about the Sahara explorers ? have you seen many similar features in the desert?


Thanks for sharing!

Mark B.
Vail, AZ

--- On Wed, 12/9/09, Randy Korotev <korotev at wustl.edu> wrote:

> From: Randy Korotev <korotev at wustl.edu>
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Libyan (looks like a) crater
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Date: Wednesday, December 9, 2009, 8:21 AM
> Dear List:
>
> I received this intriguing e-mail today from someone I
> don't know.
>
> =========================
>
> Dear Randy, I am a geophysicist and had a recent trip on
> Libyan desert for campaign of geophysical investigations,
> mostly GPR and Geoelectric tomography. Going back to the
> camp I found at sunset ?due to low angle light- something
> strange on the flat desert surface.
>
> I found a perfect circular crater with melt sand scattered
> around . sand grains are melt and embedding larger quartz
> grains. In my opinion that?s a impact crater and sand is
> melt because of the heat wave. Larger grains had no time to
> melt .
>
> That melt rock has a black matrix-nothing like that in the
> area, also there are no similar structures in that flat,
> flat flat? desrt surface, sand is only silica and
> quartz grain and no dark matrix can be seen for kilometers.
>
> I made a few geophysics on the spot and found big electric
> anomalies and very anomalous readings of Geoelectric
> values.
>
> I took a few samples of melt rock ?very heavy really.
>
> I am posting a few photos of the crater.
>
> I have another stone found at 2500 m on the bed of a melt
> glacier, same story, that?s not a stone of the area, it is
> like a fuse, heavy and black inside with a very aerodynamic
> shape, I will mail you a photo ( after reading once more
> your recommendations) if interested . for sure not a human
> artifact or an original stone of the area.
>
> Sorry to disturb,
> ...
> =========================
> I put the photos here:
>
> http://meteorites.wustl.edu/meteorwrongs/libyan_crater.htm
>
> The round thing in the desert looks something like a
> crater.? Maybe it's a bomb crater.? Maybe it's a
> meteorite impact crater.? The rock doesn't look like
> samples of Libyan desert glass that I've seen.? I don't
> know the LDG story well.? Has there ever been a crater
> associated with the glass?
>
>
> Randy Korotev
> Saint Louis, MO
> korotev at wustl.edu
>
>
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Received on Wed 09 Dec 2009 01:39:07 PM PST