NATS 1560 Lecture 7: Craters Notes
8 Feb 2017
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Craters notes: impacts that create craters on planetary surface have been recognized as an important geological process in recent decades, impacts can have significant effects on the geology, biology and atmosphere of a planet. Craters used to be labelled as volcanic features. Large impact craters create a lot of heat. Recent examples on earth (50, 000 years old) In dessert so less chances of erosions (water, vegetation etc) Exploded in atmosphere, didn"t hit the ground. Hit in abandon area or else the whole place would have vanished. Russian revolution so no one went to look at this till after. Scientists hypothesize that impacts from comets or asteroids have caused a wide range of effects- from carving craters on the moon to triggering periodic mass extinction on earth. While most craters on earth have eroded with time, there are more than 160 that have been identified since. Most on land, most are fairly large.
