Tenoumer crater

22.918611111111 - 10.405833333333Koordinaten: 22 ° 55 '7 "N, 10 ° 24' 21 " W

Tenoumer is the name for an impact crater in Mauritania. The crater is located in the Sahara and forms an almost perfectly preserved circle. It has a diameter of 1.9 km and forms a crater of about 100 meters.

From a geological point of view, the rock is embedded in the Tenoumer, very old; it is dated 3500 mya and comes from the Precambrian basement rocks. The impact, however, occurred only about 21,400 ± 9,700 years ago during the Pleistocene.

For a long time the crater was assumed to be explosion crater that was created due to a phreatic eruption, that is volcanic in origin. As the formation of the crater was eventually resolved, you went out on a number of multiple Impaktereignissen. Tenoumer and two more craters, the Temimichat - Ghallaman and Aouelloul, are in fact exactly in a straight line. In 2003, scientists examined the craters on its respective age by their chemical composition was considered. Thus it could be demonstrated that, contrary to initial belief, the craters do not originate from the same impact event.