Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2023

MAY-JUNE 2023 sciences on April 24, 1950. The article also briefly describes five other pos- sible, less evident craters and, in the concluding part, we read that: “Sev- eral reasons support the supposition of the meteoric origin of these craters: 1−For the two first quoted craters [Le Clot and an anonymous one at Faugères] a karstic origin is impossible, as they are hollowed out in pure silico-aluminous rocks and at distances of 600 to 1,000 metres A broad view of the base of the Le Clot Crater, with the rows of vines in the foreground. The high rounded edge is easily understood, totally covered by luxuriant vegetation. The meteorite origin of this crater remained contro- versial for over 70 years. Today, scientific evidence suggests that it was formed by an impact of a meteoroid of about ten meters in diameter, which occurred approximately ten thousand years ago. [Caroline Leroy] with a conformation in some ways similar to those of some known im- pact craters. Those structures were distributed along a line about six km long between Faugères and Cabrerolles. After going to those lo- calities and having closely inspected those depressions in the ground, the attention of Gèze and Cailleux fo- cused on one in particular, which the locals called “Le Clot” (“the Clot”) and which the two geologists de- scribed as follows: “The depression at Cabrerolles is situated approxi- mately one km to the south-south- east of the village and presents itself as a hole in the schists. It interrupts small ravines from the quaternary age, and its depth is approximately 50 metres, and it penetrates into the eroded soil, which probably is Pliocene. It is quite circular, with a diameter of 200 to 300 metres at the upper rim, while the diameter of the flat bottom is roughly 100 to 110 metres. The inner slopes are very steep and partly covered with broken stones (coarse gravel).” This narration is part of an article published by Gèze and Cailleux in Comptes rendus de l’académie des