Moon out, as well as Mars and Mercury. We are talking about secondary drilling. They form when an asteroid falls too quickly and throws rocky material away on impact, also leaving smaller craters in its wake. So far, experts have considered such a scenario unlikely on Earth due to the dense atmosphere. But now a working group led by Thomas Kinckmann of the Albert Ludwig University in Freiburg has identified such craters in the Rocky Mountains. This stuff goes back to an asteroid collision about 280 million years ago during the Permian period, like you A report in the specialized journal “GSA Bulletin”.
© Kent Sundel, Casper College (detail)
Crater | One of the craters in the Casper Sand Formation in Wyoming, USA: Researchers concluded from the elliptical shape that it is a secondary hole.
In the Casper Sand Formation in the US state of Wyoming, researchers counted 31 holes with a diameter of between 10 and 70 meters. They concluded from geological analyzes and observations that the impact holes did not come from the asteroid itself. While it is possible for a celestial body to explode as it enters the atmosphere and fall in several pieces, one would expect traces of meteorite to be found in the craters. However, the group did not discover any of these. In addition, the shape and distribution of the impact holes will speak of a different scenario. They are radially distributed in the landscape together in accumulations. They are also relatively flat and have an oval contour typical of secondary pits.
From their location, Kinckman and his colleagues calculated the location of the main crater that the asteroid must have made once—the location of which has yet to be determined. So the celestial body must have fallen 150 and 200 kilometers from the crater field in the present-day Denver area. This is relatively close compared to the other planets and moons in our solar system. The pieces of rock thrown away were probably at least four meters in circumference and likely collided at an approximate speed of 700 to 1,000 meters per second. Kinkman and his team determined a diameter of 50 to 65 kilometers for the main hole. Next, the researchers want to determine its exact location.
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