First discovery in my country! Scientists discovered a meteorite crater with a diameter of 1,400 meters on a high mountain

Chinese scientists discovered a meteorite crater on a high mountain for the first time

For the first time, Chinese scientists discovered a meteorite crater on a high mountain. This result was recently published in the English academic journal "Matter and Radiation under Extreme Conditions".

Meteorite craters on Earth are circular pits formed by the impact of asteroids and other celestial bodies in the universe. Meteorites are not only a unique existence in nature, but also one of the important bases for scientists to study outer space.

The head of the Beijing High Pressure Science Research Center told reporters that there are many famous meteorite craters in the world, such as the Barringer Crater in Arizona, the United States, and the Wolf Creek Crater in Australia, some of which have become world-famous tourist attractions. However, no researchers have ever found a meteorite crater on a high mountain.

The newly discovered meteorite crater is located at the top of a mountain in Baijifeng National Forest Park, more than 20 kilometers southeast of Tonghua City, Jilin Province, China, with a diameter of 1,400 meters. The height difference between the highest point on the rim of the crater and the lowest point in the center of the crater is more than 400 meters. It is in the shape of a cirque, like a huge funnel hanging on the mountain, magnificent and spectacular .

The picture shows the Baijifeng crater taken by a drone. (Photo provided by the research team)

Baijifeng National Forest Park is famous for the large number of "sky rocks" covering the top of Baijifeng. Large pieces of rock fragments are piled up on the top and hillside, forming a stone waterfall. However, the origin of these "sky rocks" has always been an unsolved mystery.

The picture shows a schematic diagram of impact rock fragments and evidence of impact metamorphism. (Photo provided by the research team)

"When an asteroid hits the flat surface of the earth, a bowl-shaped pit is formed. But when an asteroid falls on a special terrain on the earth's surface, the propagation form and mechanism of the shock wave at the explosion point will change with the terrain (such as the direction of the mountains)." Chen Ming, one of the discoverers of the crater and a researcher at the Beijing High Pressure Science Research Center, told reporters that Baijifeng Mountain is mainly composed of bedrock materials such as Proterozoic sedimentary rocks and Jurassic granite.

"After the asteroid hit the top of the mountain, it triggered a violent explosion and rock ejection from the target area, forming a huge impact crater, shaping two new peaks, 'Front Baiji' and 'Back Baiji', and changing the original shape of the mountain." Chen Ming said that the stone waterfalls now distributed on the top of the mountain and the hillside are the accumulation of rock fragments such as sandstone and granite ejected from the crater to the edge of the crater when the asteroid impact occurred. This new discovery has solved the mystery of the formation of the "sky stone" on Baiji Peak.

Reviewers believe that this discovery enriches human understanding of the history of planetary collisions and provides a new perspective for exploring the impact crater formation mechanism of special topography and the impact metamorphic effect of materials.

Source: Xinhuanet