Vineland resident Daniel Connelly believes he has discovered a huge impact crater that covers much of central Australia. His theory holds that a 20- to 30-mile-wide comet struck the area about 545 million years ago, resulting in a cataclysmic explosion.
It all began last November with a casual look down on the planet from 5,000 miles up on Google Earth. Vineland resident Daniel Connelly never expected to find what he now believes is the largest impact crater yet discovered on Planet Earth. Since then, he has struggled without success but remains undeterred in his efforts to get experts around the world to accept his belief that a comet or asteroid at least 20 miles in diameter struck what is now the Australian outback some 545 million years ago, creating a crater with an outer ring some 1,300 miles in diameter. Connelly's new passion began when he was considering a trip to Australia and was using the Web site's satellite images to scout out a country he had never visited. Then he noticed something unusual -- a visible ring circling much of the Australian continent.
What may be the single largest impact crater on the planet, if not the entire solar system, has been discovered in Australia. The crater measures an incredible 1400+ miles in diameter. The crater, first discovered by amateur geologist Gene Harvey, was ironically found while watching the local news about another much smaller crater discovered by Eugene Shoemaker in Australia. Gene Harvey, a computer expert living in Kingman, Arizona, discovered the crater on April 6, of this year, but he states that the crater has yet to be confirmed and Harvey says that such confirmation may take several years - due to the extreme size of the crater. However, Harvey states that the crater meets all of the expected criteria for being a genuine crater, the most significant being a multiple ringlike structure showing extreme deformation. Additionally, the crater displays a 'rebound zone' typically know as a 'mascon' found at the exact centre of the crater. Mr. Harvey has been attempting to verify the discovery by himself by doing extensive web searches on the geophysical properties of the region, but going it alone is difficult without any funding sources. Notwithstanding, Harvey has already uncovered multiple image maps of the Australian continent , ( freely available on the internet ). showing the gravitational and magnetic anomalies of the crater. Additionally, Harvey is currently searching the internet for publications relating to 'deep core' samplings of the continent to further help with confirmation. Deep core samples would confirm the presence of 'impact melt' materials that would have been the result of extreme temperatures caused by the impact.
Harvey has already reported the discovery to NASA, and the Regional Planetary Imaging Facility, (RPIF), at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick located in Canada, and has been in contact with both facilities and is awaiting confirmation from them.