In A Crater, Scientist Seeks Clues To One Of The Greatest Volcanic Shows On Earth

摘要

About 50,000 years ago, a huge meteorite smacked into our planet, gouging a hole more than a mile wide and 790 feet deep in India. Of the roughly 150 known meteorite impact sites on Earth, Lonar Crater is the only one that struck in an area layered with volcanic rock-a massive plateau made of ancient lava flows called the Deccan Traps.rnThat makes Lonar Crater a unique and relatively convenient place for earth scientists to study how meteors scar the volcanic surfaces of other crater-dented planets, such as Mars. In January 2006, Adam Soule, a volcanologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, joined researchers from Harvard, MIT, and Princeton on a nine-day expedition to map and study Lonar Crater.