Photo credit: NASA via Peta Pixel
An ISS astronaut captured this amazing photo of a skull-like rock formation in northern Chad on February 12, 2023 using a Nikon D5 camera. More specifically, you’re looking at a 1,000-meter (3,300-foot) deep volcanic pit and soda lake Trou au Natron.
Shadows cast by the rim of a caldera-type volcanic crater partly form the edge of the “face”, after an explosive eruption or the collapse of the surface into a partially-emptied magma chamber. Cinder cones make up the “eyes” and “nose”, while the white area around the “mouth” is actually a mineral crust made of a salt known as natron.
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The remoteness of Trou au Natron makes it difficult for scientists to access. However, analysis of rock and fossil samples collected in the 1960s indicate that Trou au Natron was filled by a glacial lake hundreds of meters deep about 14,000 years ago,” said Adam Voiland, Senior Science Writer for NASA Earth Observatory.
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