Richat Structure Aka Eye Of The Sahara

Rishat Structure Aka Eye of the Sahara is a geological formation with a circular relief, located in the Sahara Desert (in Mauritania), near the settlement of ouadane. The site topography, located in the middle of barren desert in the form of concentric circles with a diameter of 40-50 km, can be seen even from space. According to the research, the scientists came to the conclusion that the Sahara eye is purely geological origin, although for a long time it was believed (and some think so to this day) that this natural site was formed by a meteorite falling to Earth. For a long time it was believed that its appearance this amazing natural site is obliged fallen hundreds of years ago, a meteorite on the surface of the Earth. However, after a series of studies that theory had to admit unconfirmed, and it was replaced by a different - a full geological origin of the Sahara's eyes.

For a long time, ever since the first space missions, Rishat structure served as a landmark for astronauts in orbit, as among the vast expanse of unremarkable desert was our well-visible object. Structure Rishat is not followed by the fall of an ancient meteor as many thought and still think. These concentric circles, in fact of alternating layers of sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks, formed as a symmetrical anticline by erosion. flickr/Stuart Rankin

It is believed that the Eye of the Sahara was formed in the period between the Late Proterozoic (2.5 billion years) and Ordovician (480 million years). The most ancient ring about 600 million years. The original version of the origin in a collision with a meteorite later changed version fully geological origin of these concentric circles. Despite the extensive field and laboratory studies that have been conducted, scientists, geologists could not find conclusive evidence that would indicate that the impact of an extraterrestrial object.

Moreover, there is a ring-shaped structure Rishat depression that characterizes the place of a meteorite of this size. From meteorite crash site Sahara Eye also differs in that sedimentary rocks are deposited in it in the usual, "pristine", not the inverted form. According to the latest analytical study breccia (a rock consisting of cemented rubble of one or more rock) Rishat structure, carbonate-rich silica rocks formed under the influence of hydrothermal waters, and the structure itself requires special protection, and further study of its origin.