Isli and Tislit: The First Dual Impact Crater Discovered in Morocco

Abderrahmane Ibhi, Hassane Nachit, El Hassan Abia, Ahmed Ait Touchnt, Carmela Vaccaro

Department of Earth Sciences, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
Geoheritage and Geomaterials Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences, University of Ibn Zohr, Agadir, Morocco.

DOI: 10.4236/ijaa.2013.32A001                

Abstract

Isli and Tislit, the Moroccan “Romeo and Juliette” according to a popular legend gave their name to a twin lakes in Imilchil. There we show evidences that these two lakes are impact craters. The proof as follow: 1) the fragments of iron meteorites found on both sides of Isli and Tislit lakes belong to the same parent meteorite and siderite type; 2) the sedimentary formations which are almost tabular in the area of the lakes become tilted with a centripetal sloping all around and towards Isli lake; 3) the circular shape of the Tislit lake is similar to that of the Isli lake; 4) the impact breccias found on the south of the Isli lake contain shocked quartz crystals; 5) the radial fractures of high pressure affect some sedimentary beds. All these observations give evidence of the presence of an impact crater due to the fall of meteorites.

Keywords

Meteorite; Ataxite; Impact Crater; Shocked Quartz; Impact Breccias; Morocco

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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