For the first time, scientists in our country discovered craters in high mountains

For the first time, scientists in our country discovered a crater in a high mountain, and this result was recently published in the English-language academic journal "Matter and Radiation under Extreme Conditions".

Craters on Earth are celestial bodies such as asteroids in the universe that fall into the earth and form ring-shaped craters. Meteorites are not only a peculiar existence in nature, but also one of the important bases for scientists to study outer space.

The person in charge of the Beijing High Voltage Science Research Center told reporters that there are many famous craters in the world, such as Ballinger Crater in Arizona, USA, Wolf Creek Crater in Australia, etc., which have partially become world-renowned tourist attractions. However, no researchers have previously discovered craters in high mountains.

The newly discovered crater is located on the top of the mountain in Baijifeng National Forest Park, more than 20 kilometers southeast of Tonghua City, Jilin Province, our country, with a diameter of 1,400 meters. The height difference between the highest point of the crater rim and the lowest point in the center of the pit is more than 400 meters, in the shape of an ice bucket, like a huge funnel hanging on the mountain, magnificent and spectacular.

The picture shows the Baijifeng crater taken by a drone. (Photo courtesy of the research team)

Baijifeng National Forest Park is known for being covered with a large number of "sky stones" on the top of Baijifeng Peak. Large rock fragments accumulate on the top and slopes of the mountain, forming a stone waterfall. However, the cause of these "heavenly stones" has always been an unsolved mystery in the past.

The picture shows the schematic diagram of the impact rock fragments and the evidence of impact metamorphism. (Photo courtesy of the research team)

"When an asteroid hits the Earth's plane, it forms a bowl-shaped crater. However, when an asteroid falls on the special terrain of the Earth's surface, the propagation pattern and mechanism of the explosion point shock wave will change with the terrain (such as the direction of mountains). Chen Ming, one of the crater discoverers and a researcher at the Beijing High Voltage Science Research Center, told reporters that Baijifeng Mountain is mainly composed of bedrock materials such as Proterozoic sedimentary rocks and Jurassic granite.

"After the asteroid hit the top of the mountain, it triggered a violent explosion and rock ejection from the target area, forming a huge impact crater, shaping two new peaks, 'Former Baiji' and 'Later Baiji', changing the original shape of this mountain." Chen Ming said that the stone waterfalls now distributed on the top and slopes of the mountain are the accumulation of rock fragments such as sandstone and granite thrown from the crater to the edge of the crater when the asteroid impact occurred. This new discovery solves the mystery of the origin of the "Tianshi" of Baiji Peak.

The reviewers believe that this discovery enriches human understanding of the history of planetary collisions, and provides a new perspective for exploring the impact and metamorphic effects of special topography and landforms.