The Kamil Crater in Egypt.
We report on the detection in southern Egypt of an impact crater 45 meters in diameter with a pristine rayed structure. Such pristine structures are typically observed on atmosphereless rocky or icy planetary bodies in the solar system. This feature and the association with an iron meteorite impactor and shock metamorphism provides a unique picture of small-scale hypervelocity impacts on Earth's crust. Contrary to current geophysical models, ground data indicate that iron meteorites with masses of the order of tens of tons can penetrate the atmosphere without substantial fragmentation.
Folco
Luigi
L
Museo Nazionale dell'Antartide Università di Siena, Via Laterina 8, 53100 Siena, Italy. folco@unisi.it
Di Martino
Mario
M
El Barkooky
Ahmed
A
D'Orazio
Massimo
M
Lethy
Ahmed
A
Urbini
Stefano
S
Nicolosi
Iacopo
I
Hafez
Mahfooz
M
Cordier
Carole
C
van Ginneken
Matthias
M
Zeoli
Antonio
A
Radwan
Ali M
AM
El Khrepy
Sami
S
El Gabry
Mohamed
M
Gomaa
Mahomoud
M
Barakat
Aly A
AA
Serra
Romano
R
El Sharkawi
Mohamed
M