Kamil Crater

22.01833326.0877Koordinaten: 22 ° 1 ' 6 "N, 26 ° 5' 15.7 " E

Gebel Kamil (Arabic: جبل كامل - pronounced " jebel kamil " ) is the name of a meteorite, whose crater ( Kamil crater ) was found in the area of Mount Djebel Kamil in Egypt.

In 2009 Vincento De Michele discovered with Google Earth in the East Uweinat Desert in southwestern Egypt near the border with Sudan, an impact crater with a diameter of 45 meters. The difference in elevation from the crater rim to the center of the crater is about 8 meters, there being about 2 meters aeolian sediments have been deposited. On satellite imagery can be seen that this crater must be geologically very young, as the ejecta blanket is easy to recognize. The researchers have previously assumed that the impact is younger than 5000 years, since human traces are covered by ejecta. In the context of the crater Impaktglas could be identified. During two Italian - Egyptian expeditions to this crater in February 2009 and February 2010 were collected over 1.6 tons of meteoritic material, which was still more material found and mapped. The meteorite is classified as ungruppierter iron meteorite. It has a Ataxit structure with centimeter-sized embedded schreibersite, troilite and Daubréelith crystals.

The fact that in the immediate vicinity of the impact site, not just the usual soil material, but also thousands of fragments of the meteorite were found itself, is seen as unusual fact. Scientists conclude that Gebel Kamil Earth's atmosphere despite its small mass (estimated) could cross only 5 to 10 tons largely intact and only broke the ground on impact. So far it was assumed that meteorites with a mass of less than 3000 tons, the thermal and mechanical loads while traversing the atmosphere not stand and break long before they reach the ground.