Italian Mineralogist Discovers Rare Egyptian Crater

In 2008, an Italian mineralogist stumbled upon a strange wheel-like mark on Google Earth in southern Egypt. This discovery led to a research team investigating the site in the Sahara desert.

The crater is officially known as Gebel Kamil and is an exceptional example of a small impact structure that has been preserved in its pristine state. The study published in Science in 2010 credits V. De Michele, a curator at the Natural History Museum in Milan, with identifying the rayed formation.

The researchers found that the crater is about 45 meters wide and 16 meters deep, with a rim rising 3 meters above the pre-impact surface. The target rock was Cretaceous sandstone from the Gilf Kebir Formation, and the crater's age is believed to be less than 5,000 years.

The team recovered about 1.6 tonnes of meteorite fragments, with a nickel content of 19.8 percent by weight. The majority of the fragments were scattered across the surrounding desert, with some as far away as 1.6 kilometers east of the crater's edge.