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[MicroNova]

Well for one I am again amazed that sometimes a good thing comes out of the bad. Beleive it or not, when the Golf War started up, the marshes in Iraq were drained. Low and behold a new and fresh impact crater has been found!

The details are at this web address:

www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/11/04/wmet04.xml&sSheet=/news/2001/11/04/ixhomef.html

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Here is a snipet of the story...

Meteor clue to end of Middle East civilisations...

SCIENTISTS have found the first evidence that a devastating meteor impact in the Middle East might have triggered the mysterious collapse of civilisations more than 4,000 years ago.

Studies of satellite images of southern Iraq have revealed a two-mile-wide circular depression which scientists say bears all the hallmarks of an impact crater. If confirmed, it would point to the Middle East being struck by a meteor with the violence equivalent to hundreds of nuclear bombs.

Today's crater lies on what would have been shallow sea 4,000 years ago, and any impact would have caused devastating fires and flooding.

The catastrophic effect of these could explain the mystery of why so many early cultures went into sudden decline around 2300 BC.

They include the demise of the Akkad culture of central Iraq, with its mysterious semi-mythological emperor Sargon; the end of the fifth dynasty of Egypt's Old Kingdom, following the building of the Great Pyramids and the sudden disappearance of hundreds of early settlements in the Holy Land.
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There is indeed many mysteries and hidden treasures under feet of sand, water and foilage. It wasn't that long ago that the ancient Mayan city was "discovered" beneath a canopy of vegetation. And Irag is claimed to be the cradle of civilization, with the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and all. And remember...Major Nelson's Jeanie came from Baghdad!

Check the link for a pic and the full story.

Hey...thanx for the link, good stuff.