Sankar Chatterjee and his colleagues at Texas Tech University have conducted a study of the greatshiva basin, a submerged depression in western India that is known for its vast oil and gas resources. “If we are right, we are looking at the largest known crater on our planet,” Chatterjee said. Investigators suspect it was created by afireball about 40 kilometers in diameter. A considerable size when compared to the asteroid that hit the Yucatan Peninsula, which is commonly attributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs, which had a diameter of between 8 and 10 kilometers.
The outer edge of Shiva forms a ring about 500 kilometers in diameter around a central peak, calledBombay High, which rises more than 4,500 meters above the seabed. If Chatterjee is right,Shiva’s impact vaporized the earth’s crustat the point of collision, allowing emerger material deposited on the mantle. It is possible that this impact was related to thevolcanic activitythat affected much of western India, and even led to thedisplacement of the Seichelles islandstowards Africa.
The team plans to travel to India at the end of the year to takerock sampleson that seabed. If they findimpacted quartzand anomalous amounts ofiridiumthey will be able to show that it is indeed a crater.
