Large Meteorite Impact Crater Found Under Greenland's Ice

London: An international team of researchers has unearthed a large meteorite impact crater under more than a half-mile of ice in northwestern Greenland’s Hiawatha Glacier. Measuring roughly 1,000 feet deep and more than 19 miles in diameter, the crater — the first of any size found under the Greenland ice sheet — is one of the 25 largest impact craters on Earth, the researchers said.

According to the study, the crater formed less than 3 million years ago when an iron meteorite more than half a mile wide smashed into northwest Greenland. The resulting depression was subsequently covered by ice. “The crater is exceptionally well-preserved and that is surprising because glacier ice is an incredibly efficient erosive agent that would have quickly removed traces of the impact,” said lead author Kurt Kjaer, Professor at the Natural History Museum of Denmark. The tectonic structures in the rock near the foot of the glacier, as well as the samples of sediments washed out from the depression, confirm that the glacier is a meteorite crater. (IANS)

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