" Astro-nut ": Where the aliens(if they exist) might aim… …BULL’s EYE!

The Richat Structure is a rather weirdly prominent, (and might I add, extremely conspicuous) circular feature in the Sahara desert.It is located in Mauritania in continental Western Africa.

Because of it’s rather conspicuous extremely regular circular shape it attracts a lot of attention, primarily from those who observe it from space.This is because due to it’s large size ( a diameter of approximately 50 kilometers[that’s 30 miles!]) it’s regular circular shape become obvious only to those who see it from far far away, or in this case, from high high above.

Though initially most people who saw it used to think of it as a remnant of some sort of meteorite coming crashing down on Earth, in other words an Impact Crater, the geological evidence from the site that has been reexamined recently now suggests (in light of our advances in geological studies since the initial discovery and subsequent research done of the site) that it is actually a symmetrical uplift (i.e. a circular anticline) that has been laid bare by erosion.In other words, the layered sedimentary rocks present at the site are now thought to have been caused by uplifted rocks, that hav since then been moulded by erosion into their present form that we see today.

The other possibility that the circular structure was formed by a volcanic eruption (as is generally the case with structures that hav a central vortex or a conical structure) has now been largely discounted as being impossible due to the lack of presence of any igneous or volcanic rocks at the site.

I surely hope those Martians(if they ever decide to visit Earth)[and might I also add 4 scientific detail, if they exist], choose a better spot than the harsh arid inhospitable region of the Sahara desert to land, if they do decide to ever drop by and say hello to us lonely Earthlings…

Surjodeb Basu .(DEV/DAVE)
(30/11/2007)

I used the following for my research into the topic while writing this article:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021028.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richat_Structure

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9319

http://www.googlesightseeing.com/?p=396

http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=21117811&x=-11423721&z=11&l=0&m=a&v=2

“The Ends of The Richat” - Irving Bradford(ebook version was used - Mostly chap.2)

ps- any observations/remarks regarding the structure itself or anything mentioned about it in the article are most welcome.

As a follow up I am also enclosing the Google Earth Placemark Coordinates link 4 Google Earth users: