Modern Mysteries

Mystery surrounds 2km ice ring in Antarctica

By T.K. Randall
January 13, 2015 ·  18 comments

Scientists believe that the ring is the site of a meteorite impact. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0 Liam Quinn The ring-shaped feature was first spotted by geophysicist Christian Muller in Antarctica's King Baudoin Ice Shelf during a routine survey flight over the region in December.

Keen to get to the bottom of the mystery, Muller and his team discovered two previous studies pertaining to a large meteorite around the size of a house that was believed to have landed somewhere in the Antarctic back in 2004.The researchers now believe that the crater that they found is the site where the meteorite, which was traveling at 29,080mph, hit the ice after exploding with the force of 12,000 tonnes of TNT.

Their efforts will now focus on corroborating their theory and determining whether the area around the ice ring holds any additional clues as to what happened.


Source: New Scientist | Comments (18)

Tags: Antarctica, Meteorite