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

[Mark Bowling]

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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