Monday, January 22, 2024 10:43am
Image: Blueee77/NASA/Shutterstock
This amazing image taken from space depicts the Eye of the Sahara, a 50-kilometre-long geological formation in the Sahara Desert in Mauritania, Africa. What the heck is that and why is it staring into space?
Also known as the Richat structure, this eye dates back to the Neoproto-Episode era, between 1 billion and 542 million years ago. Scientists had long believed that this was a giant crater created by a meteorite impact. Some claim that it is the remains of Atlantis. As it turns out, it’s neither.
From IFL Science:
This structure is actually formed through a process called “folding,” and is thought to form what is called a symmetrical anticline. Folding occurs when sedimentary rocks are compressed by tectonic forces acting from both sides. If the rock is cold and brittle, it may crack, but if it is warm enough, it will fold. Folds that form upward are called anticlines, and folds that form downward are called synclines.
However, in a paper published in a journal in 2014, African Geoscience Journal, researchers proposed a completely different explanation for the formation of the eye. The presence of volcanic rock is said to suggest evidence that lava was forced to the surface, causing the dome shape, before being eroded into the ring we see today. This paper proposed that the separation of the supercontinent Pangea may have been involved in the formation of these volcanoes and tectonic movements.
(via daily grail)