NASA Unveils Image of a Skull-Like Crater in the Sahara Desert.
The Earth Observatory of NASA has just released an image resembling a glowing skull, gazing up into space. This skull-like formation is located at the center of the massive Trou au Natron crater in the Sahara Desert.
Astronaut captures image of giant glowing skull in the Sahara. (Photo: International Space Station).
This unique image was taken by an unnamed astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as it flew over the Tibesti Massif mountain range, which stretches from the heart of the Sahara Desert through Chad and Libya.
“Skull Formation” is situated right in the crater of Trou au Natron, which spans approximately 1,000 meters in diameter. It is also the remnants of a significant volcanic eruption that occurred long ago.
The white coloration of the mouth, nose, and cheek areas of the skull is attributed to a layer of natron—a natural mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride, and sodium sulfate, created by geothermal activity in the region.
Trou au Natron is not too eerie when viewed from the ground. (Photo: Gerhard Holub)
The nostrils and eye areas are, in fact, steep conical hills formed around the crater, which are several thousand or even millions of years old. The dark area on the left side of the face is a shadow created by the high geological rim of the crater.
According to the Earth Observatory, researchers discovered marine fossils and plankton beneath the natron layer of this crater in the 1960s. In 2015, another expedition found 120,000-year-old algae fossils right in the area.
