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In a new article published in Science Advanced, scientists said that beneath the Hiawatha glacier is a huge crater created by the fall of the asteroid.
Remember that Hiavata is part of Greenland's Ice Sheet. The thickness of the glacier is about 930 meters.
Experts learned about the crater after analyzing data collected by satellites and aerial radar surveys from 1997 to 2016. According to the data, the crater is circular in shape and has a diameter of about 31 km. Its depth is 320 meters .
After we found the crater, we, of course, wanted to take samples from the bottom of the crater, but that is impossible. However, the samples collected near showed a large number of microscopic quartz grains, plagioclase, ilmenite and other metals once subjected to strong short-term heating, – explained the scientists.
They suggest that the crater could have arisen due to the fall of an asteroid on Earth, the diameter of which was about one and a half kilometers. According to the calculations, he had to fly at a speed of 20 km / s and have a density of 8 t / m3.
The age of the crater is unknown. It was probably formed in the cliff-rocky rocks about 1.5-2.5 billion years ago.
Below you can see how scientists are investigating a crater.
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