[Rerun] Impact crater found under ice
Below the Greenland's Hiawatha Glacier lies a 31-kilometer-wide depression that is believed to be an impact crater from a meteorite. Was it a meteor strike that brought about a mysterious 1000-year cold snap known as the Younger Dryas? When over a blink of an eye (in geological timescales) the planet cooled somewhere between 2 to 6 degrees Celsius. The answer to that question may lie in some dirty layers of the inland ice.
Henrik Prætorius interviews (in Danish) geologist Kurt Kjær, Professor of Quaternary Geology at the Section of Geo-genetic at the University of Copenhagen, who is heading to Greenland to collect samples .
Quaternary times are the last 2.5 million years of Earth's or 4.6 billion years of history, which is the period in which a series of ice ages existed. 95% of Denmark's deposits and sediments originate precisely from the Quaternary period, and most often the deposits are related to the recent ice age.
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References to this story in English are available here:
- Scientists Spot What May Be a Giant Impact Crater Hidden Under Greenland Ice,
- Ice Age Asteroid Crater Discovered Beneath Greenland Glacier, and
- Massive Impact Crater Beneath Greenland Could Explain Ice Age Climate Swing.
Read more about the research behind this story here (in English): A large impact crater beneath Hiawatha Glacier in northwest Greenland.