Ouarkziz Impact Crater in Algeria Captured by ISS Astronaut Photo
Posted on May 11, 2012
This image of the Ouarkziz Impact Crater was captured by an astronaut abord the International Space Station. You can view a larger version of the image here. The crater is located in northwestern Algeria, close to the border with Morocco. Scientists estimate the crater was formed by a meteor impact less than 70 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era.
The 3.5-kilometer wide crater was originally called the Tindouf crater. Geologists at NASA's Earth Observator say the stream channel that cuts across the center of the impact crater formed after the impact. The geologists point to a logic tool, Charles Lyell's Principal of Cross-Cutting Relationships, which says that "Any event that cuts across an existing rock unit is younger than that unit."
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