Popigai crater
 
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Location of the Popigai crater in Russia
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The Popigai crater ( Russian Попига́й ) in northern Siberia is a large impact crater with a diameter of about 100 kilometers. A meteorite impact created the crater around 35 million years ago in the geological epoch of the late Eocene . Together with the Manicouagan crater , it is the fifth largest meteorite crater on earth .
The asteroid that created the crater has been identified as either a chondrite eight kilometers (km) in diameter or a stone asteroid five kilometers in diameter.
The shock waves of the impact have partially transformed the graphite of the subsurface within a radius of around 13.6 km into diamond . Although no precise measurements are available, it is believed that more diamonds were formed from this impact than from the rest of the geological processes in the earth. However, the use of diamond deposits is uneconomical due to the low concentrations in the rock.
Popigai Crater is the best exposed example of a large crater. There are four major craters on earth; however, these are either covered by recent deposits ( Chicxulub crater and Woodleigh crater ), severely deformed ( Sudbury basin ) or very severely eroded ( Vredefort crater ).
The crater was named after the Popigai river of the same name , which flows through it from southeast to north on its way to the Chatanga estuary .
literature
- Alexander Deutsch et al .: A treasure trove in Siberia. Research 3–4, Journal of the German Research Foundation, 2000
See also
Web links
- Popigai , in the Earth Impact Database , on passc.net (English)
- Kinan Lee: Popigai impact structure , on inside.mines.edu (PDF; English)
Coordinates: 71 ° 39 ′ 0 ″ N , 111 ° 11 ′ 0 ″ E