(ORDO NEWS) — Geologists many years ago discovered some strange finds. They did not give the scientists rest all this time.
And only recently it was possible to establish that these are actually not just traces, but also precursors of incredibly strong earthquakes.
German experts concluded that the cones in the ground appeared in those places where the asteroids fell. They can also indicate places where increased seismic activity is recorded.
Employees of the University of Applied Sciences Neu-Ulm, which is located in Germany, engaged in a detailed study of mysterious geological formations.
They have the appearance of a cone with a rather convex “head” and, at the same time, a tapering “tail”. The first such formations were discovered in the 20s of the last century in the southern part of Germany near a meteorite crater called Nerdlinger Fig . Since that time, experts have tried to understand what it is.
Just a few decades ago, it was believed that this crater is of volcanic origin, but still recently, researchers were able to prove that it is actually a meteorite. After a huge meteorite with a diameter of about one kilometer fell on our planet 14.8 million years ago, an incredibly powerful earthquake occurred, the strength of which was 8.5 points.
Geologist Elmar Büchner and his colleagues have collected many sand cones in the area around the crater. At the same time, they paid attention to the location of these finds. The scientist noted that too thick heads of these sandy spikes may indicate the presence of a seismic source.
For the cones to form, an incredibly strong earthquake would be required, along with loose sand, water, and calcite, which acts as glue. An earthquake leads to the fact that completely all moisture disappears from the sand under high pressure.
Those particles of water that still remain begin to evaporate explosively. Because of this, characteristic cavities appear in the sandstone.
After that, the sand that is around and calcite, which is the main mineral in the composition of any sandstone, gets into them. It is he who makes the resulting structure as strong as possible.
Formations of this type are extremely rare. In most cases, they form in areas where incredibly strong earthquakes once occurred.
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