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Dr. Nikos Economou, member of the School of Mineral Resources Engineering (MRED), was part of the research team from the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) with PI Dr. Sobhi Nasir which announced the discovery of the 1st verified meteorite impact crater at Oman. The aim of the study was to constrain the impact crater’s nature whose size was 770m in the S-N direction and 550m in the W-E direction, with the integration of geochemical analysis and geophysical imaging of the subsurface structure.
Dr. Nikos Economou was the scientific coordinator of the geophysical survey at the desert of Oman and more specifically at the Mahout area in October 2022, where the seismic refraction, gravity and magnetic methods were involved in combination with the Very Low Frequency (VLF) electromagnetic method. The research team, except Dr. Nikos Economou, consisted of Dr. Sobhi Nasir, Dr. Talal Al Hosni and Dr. Khalil Al Hooti as well as students from the College of Science of SQU. The geophysical data, after processing, imaged the semi-spherical buried structure of the crater and delineated a large body of high magnetic susceptibility and electrical conductivity at the center, which possibly consists of a formation with high concentration of metallic minerals due to a mixture of the meteorite melt and the indigenous geological formations.
Below are sites where the above were announced:
https://anwaar.squ.edu.om/Portals/98/DNNGalleryPro/uploads/2023/1/24/Imprint45.pdf
https://www.muscatdaily.com/2022/12/17/60mn-years-old-meteor-crater-discovered-in-mahout-wilayat/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD2ek5beAsc
Part of the research was published at scientific articles below:
Frontiers in Earth Science
Nasir, S., Economou, N., Al Hooti, K., and Al-Hosni, T., 2024, Imaging the Mahout structure at the Oman desert with the aid of geophysical observations, Frontiers in Earth Science, Solid Earth Geophysics Section, 12, 1447362.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2024.1447362
Geosciences
Nasir, S., Economou, N., Al Hooti, K., Al Hosni, T., Spratley, S., and Spratley, B., 2023, The Mahout Structure in the Central Desert of Oman: A Possible Simple Impact Crater. Geosciences, 13, 363. doi.org/10.3390/geosciences13120363.
Link: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/13/12/363
Al Hajar- Geological Society of Oman
Nasir, N., Oikonomoy, N., Al-Hooti, K., and Al-Hosni, T., 2023, The First Record of an Impact Crater in the Sultanate of Oman, Geological Society of Oman, Al-Hajar Magazine 4–14. Available at: gso-oman.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/35.-GSO_Al-Hajar-Magazine_35th-Issue.pdf (accessed 4 November 2024).
Link: https://gso-oman.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/35.-GSO_Al-Hajar-Magazine_35th-Issue.pdf
