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Two Aberdeen-based geoscientists working in the oil industry have identifying a unique and remarkably well-preserved crater 1000 metres below the North Sea seabed. Silverpit crater, as it has been named, is 3 km in diameter at its core, with concentric rings stretching out to around 10 km from the centre. It is these well preserved rings that are of particular interest as they bear a remarkable similarity to two multi-ringed craters on Jupiter's moon, Europa.
Discoverers Phil Allen and Simon Stewart have now published a paper in �Nature� on the Silverpit crater, released on 1 August, and to be simultaneously featured in �New Scientist�. The seismic interpretation of the data is now 90% complete, and Allen and Stewart are �99.9%� certain that Silverpit is indeed the UK�s first discovered impact crater. This view is corroborated by world authority Jay Melosh, Professor of Planetary Science at the University of Arizona who describes the Silverpit discovery as �a wonderful find�.
More info: Nature
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