Taken July 25, 2009, this astronaut photograph shows the concentric rings of Aorounga Impact Crater in north-central Chad.
Published Aug 10, 2009
At 3,415 meters above sea level, the summit is the highest of Africa’s Sahara region.
Published Feb 14, 2011
In this astronaut photograph, a pair of jewel-toned lakes sit in the Deriba Caldera on top of Mount Marra Volcano in western Sudan. Shadows throw the steep southern wall of the outer crater into sharp relief.
Published Dec 8, 2008
Germany’s Ries Crater (or Nördlinger Ries) is not easily discerned in space-based images. The crater’s existence was probably just as subtle to the medieval Europeans who established a settlement inside it and unknowingly matched their 1-kilometer- (0.6-mile-) wide city to the likely diameter of the meteorite that formed the crater.
Published Mar 9, 2008
Deep in the Sahara Desert lies a crater. Nearly a perfect circle, it is 1.9 kilometers (1.2 miles) wide, and sports a rim 100 meters (330 feet) high. Modern geologists long debated what caused this crater, some of them favoring a volcano. But closer examination of the structure revealed that the crater’s hardened “lava” was actually rock that had melted from a meteorite impact.
Published Feb 17, 2008
The crater was formed by a meteor impact less than 70 million years ago, during the “Age of Dinosaurs.”
Published May 7, 2012
Spider Crater rests in a depression some 13 by 11 kilometers (8 by 7 miles) across. Meteorite craters often have central areas of uplift, and Spider Crater fits this pattern. Spider Crater sits in a depression and has a central uplift area characteristic of impact craters, it shows extreme differences in erosion, giving it a unique appearance.
Published Mar 30, 2008
