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

From: Bob Loeffler <bobl_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 18:43:49 -0700
Message-ID: <20091210014356.76A4010564_at_mailwash5.pair.com>

That is interesting. I wonder how deep it is if someone walked to the
middle of it and scooped the sand out? Maybe it's a highly eroded impact
crater that has been filled in with sand over the years.

The rock looks like a sedimentary conglomerate of sand and some darker
material. I wouldn't call it "fused", but I'm not an expert geologist.
What if that was a pool of water a long time ago and it got hit by
lightning? The sand around the edge of the water wouldn't fuse as much as a
fulgurite would (since the water would distribute the electrical current
throughout the pool), but maybe there would be enough electrical current to
partially fuse it together? Again, I'm not an expert. Just guessing. :-)

Bob Loeffler


-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Mark
Bowling
Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 11:39 AM
To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com; Randy Korotev
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Libyan (looks like a) crater

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 08:43:49 PM PST