Zhamanshin crater
Encyclopedia
Zhamanshin is a meteorite
crater
in Kazakhstan
.
It is 14 km
in diameter
and the age is estimated to be 900,000 ± 100,000 years (Pleistocene
). The crater is exposed at the surface.
It is believed that the Zhamanshin crater is the site of the most recent meteorite impact event of the magnitude that could have produced a disruption comparable to that of nuclear winter
, but it was not sufficiently large to have caused a mass extinction.
Meteorite
A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
crater
Impact crater
In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...
in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
.
It is 14 km
Kilometre
The kilometre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one thousand metres and is therefore exactly equal to the distance travelled by light in free space in of a second...
in diameter
Diameter
In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints are on the circle. The diameters are the longest chords of the circle...
and the age is estimated to be 900,000 ± 100,000 years (Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
). The crater is exposed at the surface.
It is believed that the Zhamanshin crater is the site of the most recent meteorite impact event of the magnitude that could have produced a disruption comparable to that of nuclear winter
Nuclear winter
Nuclear winter is a predicted climatic effect of nuclear war. It has been theorized that severely cold weather and reduced sunlight for a period of months or even years could be caused by detonating large numbers of nuclear weapons, especially over flammable targets such as cities, where large...
, but it was not sufficiently large to have caused a mass extinction.