2 days before the end of the trip, we visited the Maadna
Crater, also
known as the Talemzane Crater.
The desert crater is considered one of the most beautiful and
best-preserved on earth. There are no roads leading there. About an
hour from Laghouat, we switched to an off-road vehicle in Hassi Delaa.
The owner of the vehicle regularly drives people through the desert for
a fee.
Together with two Algerian stargazers we bumped for two hours over hill
and dale to the crater rim.
In some places, the green is sufficient for sheep and goats.
Twice we saw semi-wild dromedaries.
You can get within about 10 meters of the animals, but then they run
away. Not all animals
have owners. Animals that do have owners are marked with a brand.
The crater lies in a largely flat
landscape.
There are a few hills in the area, but they probably originated in
connection with the impact 3 million years ago.
The crater basin is clearly visible from the crater rim.
With a diameter of 1.75 km, the crater rim is only about 75 m
high.
This clearly shows how shallow the craters on the Moon must be.
The journey to the center of the crater leads over mixed debris.
The debris has no connection
to the impact. There are no meteorites there.
No Shattercones. However, in some places on the slope, white, cracked
bedrock was visible.
The cracks likely originated during the impact.
The cracks in the stone are probably not a result of the heat,
because such stones were not found anywhere else in the desert!
There is very little debris in the center
of
the crater. Wind-blown sand has settled here and leveled the ground.
Some moisture collects deep in the crater floor, allowing some shrubs
to grow on the deposited drifting sand.
There are only a few stones in the center of the crater, but they look
interesting:
Seeliger effect at a
panorama.
What's interesting is the different brightness of the crater floor in
the
northern and southern parts of the crater. This is a real phenomenon
and not an artifact of the imaging technology!
Two panoramas were taken in the center and at the rim of the crater.
