The Kamil Crater is a wide and deep (original depth, a part covered by sand at present) meteorite

impact crater An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact crater ...

in the East Uweinat Desert in southwestern

New Valley Governorate New Valley Governorate or El Wadi El Gedid Governorate ( ar, محافظة الوادي الجديد , ) is one of the governorates of Egypt. It is in the southwestern part of the country, in the south of Egypt Western Desert (part of the Saha ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

, Only north of the border with the Sudan and above sea level. It was located in 2008 using Google Earth satellite imagery by Vincenzo de Michele (former curator of the

Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milan The Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano (Milan Natural History Museum) is a museum in Milan, Italy. It was founded in 1838 when naturalist Giuseppe de Cristoforis donated his collections to the city. Its first director was Giorgio Jan. ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Studies

The first

geophysical Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' some ...

study of the Kamil Crater was conducted during an Italian-Egyptian expedition undertaken in February 2010 as part of the 2009 Egyptian-Italian Science Year (EISY) and proved the meteoritic origin of the crater. It is estimated to be less than 5,000 years old and shows a well-preserved rayed structure. The crater was produced by an

iron meteorite Iron meteorites, also known as siderites, or ferrous meteorites, are a type of meteorite that consist overwhelmingly of an iron–nickel alloy known as meteoric iron that usually consists of two mineral phases: kamacite and taenite. Most iron ...

that has been given an official name after the closest topographic feature in the area, Gebel Kamil, and which fragmented into thousands of pieces upon impact with the

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

bedrock. The meteor is estimated to have been wide and to have weighed . Meteor fragments totalling were recovered during the geophysical expedition, the bulk of which are curated at the

Egyptian Geological Museum The Egyptian Geological Museum is a museum in Cairo, Egypt. The museum was established in 1901 as part of the Egyptian Geological Survey, which had been started in 1896 under the direction of the Khedive Ismail. The museum was the first of its ki ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

. Type specimens also are curated at the Museo Nazionale dell'Antartide at the

University of Siena The University of Siena ( it, Università degli Studi di Siena, abbreviation: UNISI) in Siena, Tuscany, is one of the oldest and first publicly funded universities in Italy. Originally called ''Studium Senese'', the institution was founded in 1240 ...

, and at the Museo di Storia Naturale at the

University of Pisa The University of Pisa ( it, Università di Pisa, UniPi), officially founded in 1343, is one of the oldest universities in Europe. History The Origins The University of Pisa was officially founded in 1343, although various scholars place ...

. Kamil Crater is located at 22° 1'5.89"N latitude and 26° 5'15.69"E longitude.

References

External links

Kamil Crater
at Museo Nazionale Antartide
Photo set
on

Flickr Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and profession ...

KMZ File
for Google Earth showing the crater position. {{coord, 22, 01, 06, N, 26, 05, 16, E, region:EG-WAD_type:landmark, display=title Impact craters of Egypt Holocene impact craters

Studies

See also

References

External links