Decoding the origin of the ancient crater, formed 280 million years ago

Researchers said in a study Recently in southeastern Wyoming there are more than 30 volcanic craters formed about 280 million years ago. These craters were created after a meteorite impact hundreds of kilometers away blew boulders into the air.

Leader of the research team Thomas Kenkmann is a geologist at the University “The orbits point to a single source and show that the craters were formed by blocks ejected from a large caldera,” Freiburg in Germany said in a statement from the Geological Society of America.

Kenkmann added: “Secondary craters around larger craters are known to other planets and Moons but have never been found on Earth.”

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When researchers first discovered the crater area they suspected an asteroid (or meteorite) had broken off in mid-air and sent rocks crashing to the ground below its path. The researchers said the individual craters were between 10 and 70 m in diameter.

The craters also appeared to be “aligned” along ray-shaped patterns suggesting that these were secondary craters are all formed by debris ejected around a primary central crater created by the initial impact.

However  finding the source crater is difficult. them will be a difficult task. The team’s research shows the crater is buried deep in sediments somewhere near the Wyoming-Nebraska border in an area known as the Denver basin.

According to calculations by the Researchers say all secondary craters are caused by bedrock fragments roughly the size of a house, ranging from 4 m to 8 m across. They say the initial impact could be more than 2 km wide.