Advisory 

If you arrived here by any means other than from the Index of Impacts,

or the Ibro page,

 it is suggested that you start at the Introduction to gain an understanding of what follows.

The Eye of the Sahara

Africa

In West Africa...

Particularly in the West African country of Mauritania....

  ...is the Eye of the Sahara.

      The Eye of the Sahara has been watching the sky for millions of years.

It is called The Richat Structure.

     There are many theories about the origin of this structure. In fact this has all the markings of a high velocity asteroid impact. The center of impact is South of the center of the structure as marked below, such that the asteroid came in at a steep angle from the South. The impact had such energy that it liquified the area when it hit, causing the ripples to form, similar to dropping a rock into a bucket of water. This impact would have penetrated deeply, such that as the liquified material came back together, it formed the circles off center to the actual center of impact, perpendicular to gravity. This is similar to shooting a bullet at an angle into water. The bubbles that follow the bullet rise vertically, rather than following the angled path of the bullet. The formation here is not unlike the formation of the circles formed at mud pots found at geothermal areas such as Yellowstone and the Sultan Sea.

     However, the entire structure is the result of two impacts. The smaller impact. the blue eye pictured above, we can call Eyerus. The larger structure we can call Ibro.

      Ibro impacted 97 miles (155 km) to the South southeast of the Eyerus impact, and the large brown eyebrow of this structure is the rim of that impact.

 Ibro is described HERE.

      The proof of impact lies not so much in the center structure, but in the seismic circle alignments that were left by the impacts. The highlights of the seismic circles for Eyerus are described below.

     At 130 miles (210 km) to the  Southwest, a very definite line was scribed by the seismic wave. That this structure can be seen from an apparent altitude of 350 miles attests to the scale of it. The Richat Structure has been dated at 98 million years old. If that is true, then these markings have survived the harsh desert and blowing sands for that length of time.

     The formation to the left at 120 miles apparent altitude.

     A detailed view of this formation shows a cap rock (arrowed) and strata (lined).

      At 175 miles (280km) to the North of the Eye of the Sahara, the seismic wave formed the general boundary between the countries of Western Sahara and Mauritania. The physical features on the land that caused this border to be placed where it is, have never been associated with the Eyerus Impact before. The features that mark this boundary are barely visible from the satellite view, however the people on the ground who made the surveys for this boundary, knew them to be natural markers on the Earth where the border could be understood from the ground. Note the alignment to the Northeast where the sands give way to a harder surface.

      A closer view of this border area. This shows the reference points used to form the boundary. These points would be considered minor geographical points.  Except that, to the people that set the border line, these points have been shown to be stable points, unaffected by the blowing sands. And, they formed a logical division of the land such that a person on the ground, in this stark, wind blown, sandy desert area, would understand the line between these points without other markers.

     This is an oblique view of the border area, which is a link to a larger image (4800 pixels wide) for a closer examination of the area.

     At 175 miles (280km) South. The arrows mark the primary features of this circle. The center of impact for the Ibro Impact is marked South southeast of the Eyerus center of impact.

     At 175 miles (280km) to the Southwest, this seismic wave provided a break in the blowing sands as denoted by the arrows. The 130 mile circle is clearly shown just to the right of center in the image. This image is linked to a larger image for more detail.

     At 335 miles (540 km) to the northwest, the impact carved a perfect arc on the coast of Western Sahara.

At 455 miles  to the Southwest a major river valley was formed in Senegal. This is the Rounoum River, a tributary to the Senegal River.

     The 615 miles radius sismic circle for the Sahara Eye Meteor Impact. Prominant features are arrowed.

     At 615 miles (735 km) Northeast, the alignment of hills and valleys. These are in Algeria and Morocco along the coast.

     At 615 miles (990 km) to the Southeast, the Niger River valley was formed in Mali. To the South, the border between Mali and Guinea.

     At 1460 miles (2355 km) to the East northeast, even after millions of years of blowing sands, the effects of the impact can still be seen. This arc roughly forms the international boundary between Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. Note the alignment line just to the outside of the arc.

     At 1815 miles (2927 km) to the Southeast,  the border between Nigeria and Cameroon.

     At 2460 miles (4000 km) to the northeast this line roughly forms the eastern borders of Serbia and Macedonia, and the western borders of Romania and Bulgaria.

      At 2460 miles (4000 km) to the Southeast,  this is the primary flow of the Congo River.

     At 4285 miles (6910 km) to the Northeast of the impact in western Russia, these alignments demonstrate the energy that was expended. This coincides with the energy needed for the liquifying of the earth at the impact site. In high energy impacts like this one, it is common to see huge geographical formations aligned to the shock wave at extreme distances.These are the Ural Mountains. This impact may not have been solely responsible for the raising of these mountains at this distance, but it gave them some shape.

     At 4285 miles (6910 km) to the Northwest, through the Appalachian Mountains of North America the shock wave produced major river valleys.

     At 4385 miles radius, through Ontario, Canada.

     At 4385 miles radius, through Florida and Georgia, U.S.A.

     At 4385 miles radius, through Bolivia, S.A.

     At 4385 miles radius, through South Africa

Go to Ibro, the Eyebrow of the Eye.

Return to

Index of Impact Sites

Introduction

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© 2012, 2015 Terry Westerman