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TOPIC: Wabar craters

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Jun 15 21:01 2011

Al Wahba Crater	Permalink

The opinion that Saudi Arabia has a lot to offer to travellers is widespread. If you dont mind evading the luxurious hotels of tourist hot spots, like Madain Saleh or Abha, then there are countless possibilities for unforgettable "back-to-basics" camping trips to marvellous desert spots and mountain areas. One of those places worth paying a visit to is the Wahba Crater, 254 km away from Taif. The trip can be easily done in a weekend when travelling from Jeddah or its surroundings. You can leave Jeddah somewhere in the morning on Thursday, arrive before sunset, descend the crater on Friday morning and return the same day. Read more __________________

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: May 11 19:41 2011

Umm Al-Hadid meteorite crater	Permalink

A Trip Back In Time: Rub Al-Khali Camel Expedition 2011 After enjoying the waters, the team drove deeper into the desert to rendezvous with the camels and the support team. At times, it seemed as if the vehicle floated above the surface as the desert sands cushioned the ride. At that point, the final destination, the Umm Al-Hadid meteorite crater, lay about 240 km away. It was expected that the travelers would average about 35 km per day and cover the distance in one week. In the end, the caravan averaged 40 km per day and made the trip in six days. Read more Also known as Umm al Hadida, Umm al Hadidah, Umm al addah See more __________________

Blobrana

L

Posts: 131433

Date: Feb 28 17:44 2010

Wabar craters	Permalink

The Wabar craters are impact craters brought to the attention of Western scholars by an explorer searching for the legendary city of Ubar in Arabia. The Wabar site covers about 500 by 1,000 meters, and the most recent mapping shows three prominent, roughly circular craters. Five were reported by Philby in 1932, the largest of which measure 116 and 64 meters wide. Another was described by the 2nd Zahid expedition and is 11 meters wide: this may be one of the other three originally described by Philby. They are all underlain by a hemispherical rim of "insta-Rock," so called because it was created from local sand by the impact shock wave, and all three are nearly full of sand. The presence of iron fragments at the site also pointed to a meteorite impact, as there are no iron deposits in the region. The iron was in the form of buried fist-sized cracked balls and smooth, sand-blasted fragments found on the surface. The largest fragment was recovered in a 1966 visit to Wabar and weighs 2.2 tonnes. It is known as the "Camel's Hump" and was on display at the King Saud University in Riyadh until it became the entry piece for the new National Museum of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh. Thermoluminescence dating by Prescott et al. (2004) suggest the impact site is no more than 260 years old. Arab reports of a fireball passing over Riyadh, variously reported as occurring in 1863 or 1891, indicate the impact may have occurred very recently. Fragments scattered from the path of this fireball match samples found at the Wabar site. Read more Latitude: 21°30'19"N , Longitude: 50°28'27"E Expand (323kb, 800 x 777) __________________

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