Discovery of the largest field of meteorite impact craters (Forwarded)

Centre national de la recherche scientifique
(French National Centre for Scientific Research)
Paris, France

Contacts:

Researcher:
Philippe Paillou, +33 5 57 77 61 26,

Press:
Isabelle Tratner, +33 1 44 96 49 88,

Phototheque:
Marie Bacquet, 01 45 07 57 90,

7 October 2004

Discovery of the largest field of meteorite impact craters

CNRS researchers [1] working as part of a Franco-Egyptian team [2] have
discovered several dozen circular geological structures using radar satellite
images that enabled them to view the underground sections of arid regions up to
several meters in depth. These structures are gathered together in an area
measuring 5,000 km2 in the Southwestern Egyptian desert. A mission carried out
in the field in February 2004 has confirmed that most of these structures, 13 of
which were studied in great detail, are meteorite impact craters. They range in
size from 20 meters to 1 kilometer in diameter and may be up to 80 meters deep.
This is the largest identified field of meteorite impact craters on Earth; only
nine other such fields have been detected. This impact crater field is very
likely the result of the fragmentation of several large meteorites that broke up
when they entered the atmosphere.

The exclusive presentation of these findings appears in the October 2004 issue
of the Journal du CNRS (see attached article). They will soon be published in
the Comptes-rendus Géosciences published by the French Academy of Science.

Another field mission has been planned for December 2004, in particular to
analyze the smaller craters, which may still contain debris from meteorites
whose nature remains to be determined.

Please find attached (in french):

* Cover of the Journal du CNRS October 2004
http://www2.cnrs.fr/sites/en/fichier...tobre_2004.pdf
* Article from the Journal du CNRS October 2004
http://www2.cnrs.fr/sites/en/fichier...tobre_2004.pdf
* Album photo
http://www2.cnrs.fr/sites/en/fichier...meteorites.pdf

Notes:

[1] Philippe Paillou, Observatoire Aquitain des Sciences de l'Univers, Floirac.
Bruno Reynard, Laboratoire des Sciences de la Terre, Ecole Normale Supérieure de
Lyon.
Jean-Marie Malézieux, Institut EGID, Université de Bordeaux.
Jean Dejax, National Museum of Natural History, Paris.

[2] Within the framework of a collaboration set up in 2003 between INSU and the
University of Cairo.