Kaali is a group of nine meteorite craters in the village of Kaali on the

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

n island of

Saaremaa Saaremaa is the largest island in Estonia, measuring . The main island of Saare County, it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hiiumaa island and west of Muhu island, and belongs to the West Estonian Archipelago. The capital of the isla ...

. Most recent estimates put its formation shortly after 1530–1450 BC (3237+/-10 ¹⁴C yr BP). It was created by an impact event and is one of the few impact events that has occurred in a populated area (other ones are: Henbury craters and Carancas crater). Before the 1930s there were several hypotheses about the origin of the crater, including theories involving vulcanism and karst processes. Its meteoritic origins were first conclusively demonstrated by Ivan Reinvald in 1928, 1933 and 1937.

Formation

The impact is thought to have happened in the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

period, around 3,500 years ago.Bianca Mikovitš
Teadlaste töö tulemus Kaali kraatri vanuse määramisel ühtib vana regilauluga
Maaleht, January 26, 2016 The estimates of the age of the Kaali impact structure (Saaremaa Island, Estonia) provided by different authors vary by as much as 6,000 years, ranging from ~6,400 to ~400 years before current era (BCE). Analysis of silicate spherules in Estonian bogs show that the possible age of the impact craters could be approximately 7,600 years. A study based on elevated Ir signal in a nearby bog suggested the much younger age of 4th century BC. The craters were formed by a meteor with an estimated impact velocity of between with a total mass of between 20 and 80 metric tonnes. According to some researchers the meteor arrived from the north-east. At an altitude of , the meteor broke into pieces and fell to the Earth in fragments, the greatest of which produced a crater with a diameter of and a depth of . The explosion removed approximately of dolomite and other rocks and formed a tall, extremely hot gas flow. Vegetation was incinerated up to from the impact site. Kaali Lake ( et, Kaali järv) is on the bottom of this crater. Eight smaller craters are also associated with this bombardment. Their diameters range from and their respective depths vary from . They are all within of the main crater.

Effects

According to the theory of more recent impact, Estonia at the time of impact was in the

Nordic Bronze Age The Nordic Bronze Age (also Northern Bronze Age, or Scandinavian Bronze Age) is a period of Scandinavian prehistory from c. 2000/1750–500 BC. The Nordic Bronze Age culture emerged about 1750 BC as a continuation of the Battle Axe culture (th ...

and the site was forested with a small human population. The impact energy of about 80 TJ (20 kilotons of TNT) is comparable with that of the Hiroshima bomb blast. It incinerated forests within a radius.

In mythology

Scholars, such as Karl Kello, maintain that the event figured prominently in regional

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

. It was, and still is, considered a sacred lake. There is archaeological evidence that it may well have been a place of ritual sacrifice. At some point during the early

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

, the lake was surrounded by a stone wall long, with a median width of about and an average height of .

Finnish mythology Finnish mythology is a commonly applied description of the folklore of Finnish paganism, of which a modern revival is practiced by a small percentage of the Finnish people. It has many features shared with Estonian and other Finnic mythologies, ...

has stories that may originate with the formation of Kaali. One of them is in runes 47, 48 and 49 of the

Kalevala The ''Kalevala'' ( fi, Kalevala, ) is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and ...

epic: Louhi, the evil wizard, steals the Sun and fire from people, causing total darkness.

Ukko Ukko (), Äijä or Äijö ( Finnish for 'male grandparent', 'grandfather', 'old man'), parallel to Uku in Estonian mythology, is the god of the sky, weather, harvest and thunder in Finnish mythology. Ukkonen, the Finnish word for thunder, ...

, the god of the sky, orders a new Sun to be made from a spark. The virgin of the air starts to make a new Sun, but the spark drops from the sky and hits the ground. This spark goes to an "Aluen" or "Kalevan" lake and causes its water to rise. Finnish heroes see the ball of fire falling somewhere "behind the Neva river" (the direction of Estonia from Karelia). The heroes head in that direction to seek fire, and they finally gather flames from a forest fire. According to a theory first proposed by Lennart Meri, it is possible that Saaremaa was the legendary

Thule Thule ( grc-gre, Θούλη, Thoúlē; la, Thūlē) is the most northerly location mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman literature and cartography. Modern interpretations have included Orkney, Shetland, northern Scotland, the island of Saar ...

island, first mentioned by ancient Greek geographer Pytheas, whereas the name "Thule" could have been connected to the Finnic word ''tule'' ("(of) fire") and the folklore of Estonia, which depicts the birth of the crater lake in Kaali. Kaali was considered the place where "The sun went to rest." Kaali crater panorama

Namesake

The asteroid 4227 Kaali is named after it (except for their names, there is no connection between this asteroid and the crater).

References

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External links

About Kaali crater on the official Saaremaa websiteImpact tectonicsInteractive panoramic aerial view of the Kaali crater area
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaali Crater Impact craters of Estonia Holocene impact craters Lakes of Estonia Saaremaa Parish Sacred lakes Saaremaa Landforms of Saare County Tourist attractions in Saare County Impact crater lakes