NASA spots massive crater under Greenland ice.
- 5 years ago
GREENLAND — Researchers have discovered what may be another massive crater below Greenland's ice sheets, NASA announced on Monday.
According to Space.com, the suspected crater is around 22 miles or 36 kilometers wide, but has not been definitively identified yet as an impact crater.
According the NBC News, this comes just months after other scientists discovered a 19-mile-wide impact crater under the Hiawatha glacier.
Joe MacGregor, a glaciologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, is a co-author of the paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, which describes the find. He was also on the team that found the Hiawatha crater.
After the finding the Hiawatha crater, MacGregor and his team analyzed topographic maps and satellite imagery to see if there might be other craters in the area.
That's when they discovered the second bowl-shaped feature 114 miles southeast of the Hiawatha crater.
According to NBC, the presence was confirmed using Operation IceBridge data, an ongoing NASA mission which uses planes to map changes in ice in the polar regions.
In order for researchers to determine if this second structure is actually an impact crater, scientists will need to conduct more field work or obtain core samples to confirm the discovery.
According to NBC, the team says they are unsure how old the structure is, but they estimated it was formed 100,000 to 100 million years ago.
According to Space.com, the suspected crater is around 22 miles or 36 kilometers wide, but has not been definitively identified yet as an impact crater.
According the NBC News, this comes just months after other scientists discovered a 19-mile-wide impact crater under the Hiawatha glacier.
Joe MacGregor, a glaciologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, is a co-author of the paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, which describes the find. He was also on the team that found the Hiawatha crater.
After the finding the Hiawatha crater, MacGregor and his team analyzed topographic maps and satellite imagery to see if there might be other craters in the area.
That's when they discovered the second bowl-shaped feature 114 miles southeast of the Hiawatha crater.
According to NBC, the presence was confirmed using Operation IceBridge data, an ongoing NASA mission which uses planes to map changes in ice in the polar regions.
In order for researchers to determine if this second structure is actually an impact crater, scientists will need to conduct more field work or obtain core samples to confirm the discovery.
According to NBC, the team says they are unsure how old the structure is, but they estimated it was formed 100,000 to 100 million years ago.