The irresistible allure of meteorite impacts at Kaali kraater and Manicouagan crater

VINCENT TEETSOV

Picture yourself 3,500 years ago on the island of Saaremaa. As a Bronze Age inhabitant, you might have grown crops, and caught and domesticated animals. You might have been out hunting in the island’s densely forested areas. Your survival was predicated on your physical strength and ability to observe – skills honed in the silence of this wild environment.

As you walk back to your dwelling one evening, the sky turns blindingly bright, as if night reversed back into day. An object in the sky, consumed by flames, breaks into nine separate pieces and crashes to the surface in an explosion.

The estimated age of this meteorite impact varies significantly, with the most common estimates falling between 3,400 and 4,000 years old. For Bronze Age Estonians living on Saaremaa, the entrance of this extra-terrestrial matter into their domain would have been the brightest, loudest, most unexpected event of their living memories.

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2020 Landsat/Copernicus imagery of Manicouagan crater, Québec.