Description: Mjolnir Crater is a recently discovered ringed structure about 24 miles wide on the floor of the Barents Sea. It is the result of the impact, roughly 142.0 ± 2.6 million years ago (Lower Cretaceous), of a 1 -3 Km wide asteroid-like body.
Estimates indicate that the energy released in the impact could have been as high as a million megatons of TNT, resulting in immense (7.7 to 8.7 magnitude) earthquakes and 30-60 metre tidal waves 50 kms away.
Drawing on Norse mythology, the crater has been aptly named Mjolnir - Thor's hammer. |
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