Eye Of The Sahara: The Most Mysterious Object Of The Earth - Alternative View

Eye Of The Sahara: The Most Mysterious Object Of The Earth - Alternative View
Eye Of The Sahara: The Most Mysterious Object Of The Earth - Alternative View

Video: Eye Of The Sahara: The Most Mysterious Object Of The Earth - Alternative View

Video: Eye Of The Sahara: The Most Mysterious Object Of The Earth - Alternative View
Video: Mystery Eye of the Sahara 2024, November
Anonim

The Richat structure, or the Eye of the Sahara, as this place is also called, is a geological formation with a circular relief in the Mauritanian part of the Sahara Desert near the settlement of Ouadan. Surrounded by thousands of square kilometers of completely lifeless and shapeless desert, this area of relief in the form of concentric circles with a diameter of 40-50 kilometers is visible even from space.

For a long time it was believed that this amazing natural object owes its origin to a meteorite that fell hundreds of years ago on the Earth's surface. However, after a number of studies, this theory had to be recognized as unconfirmed, and it was replaced by another - about the completely geological origin of the Eye of the Sahara.

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For a long time, since the time of the first space missions, the Rishat structure served as a reference point for cosmonauts in orbit, since among the vast expanse of an unremarkable desert it was a well-visible object.

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The Richat structure is not a trace of the fall of an ancient meteor, as many thought and continue to think. These concentric circles are in fact alternating layers of sedimentary, metamorphic and volcanic rocks, formed in the form of a symmetrical anticline under the influence of erosion.

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The Eye of the Sahara is believed to have formed between the late Proterozoic (2.5 billion years) and the Ordovician (480 million years). The oldest ring is approximately 600 million years old.

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The original version of the origin as a result of a collision with a meteorite was later replaced by a version of the completely geological origin of these concentric circles.

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Despite extensive field and laboratory studies that have been carried out, geologists have not been able to locate conclusive evidence that would indicate the impact of an extraterrestrial object.

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Moreover, the Richat structure does not have an annular depression that characterizes the impact sites of a meteorite of similar size. The Eye of the Sahara also differs from the places where the meteorite falls in that the sedimentary rocks in it lie in the usual, "untouched", and not overturned form.

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According to the latest analytical study of breccia (rock consisting of cemented fragments of one or more rocks) of the Richat structure, carbonate in silica-rich rocks was formed under the influence of hydrothermal waters, and the structure itself requires special protection and further study of its origin.