Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2023

MAY-JUNE 2023 from the nearest limestone rocks, reckoned horizontally as well as ver- tically. 2−A very pronounced mag- netic anomaly is found in the interior of the Cabrerolles crater and in its vicinity; the magnetic declination here attaining a value of 10 [...].” The conclusions of the two French scientists stimulated the curiosity of the Danish astronomer Carl Luplau Janssen, director of the Urania Ob- servatory in Copenhagen. He de- cided to go to Hérault to collect further evidence of the meteoritic nature of the craters. In September 1950, Luplau Janssen was staying on business at the Pic-du-Midi Observa- tory and took the opportunity to make an excursion to Faugères and Cabrerolles. The following year the astronomer published the report of his inspections in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada , titling it “The meteor craters in Hérault, France.” Here are some passages from the original text: “The main crater, which is called ‘Le Clot’, is at the western end of a strip run- ning from south-south-west towards north-north-east, on which one large crater and some small ones, espe- cially in the neighbourhood of the village of Faugères, are arranged.” […] “After some adventures we reached [Mrs. Luplau Janssen was also there] Cabrerolles by car and met Mr. Jerôme Carattié, the owner of the land on which ‘Le Clot’ is lo- cated. He knew nothing of the origin of the formation, but he drove us there, a distance of one km from the village along the road to the west of the narrow Cabrerolles valley. He led us on foot up a sandy path, along which some small bushes and low plants barely covered the rocky sur- face. After a walk of about 500 me- tres, we suddenly stopped on the elevated rim of an astonishing hole in the plateau. We had reached the aim of our search. The crater was quite circular, and the slopes seemed still steeper than in the case of the Faugères Crater [inspected on the morning of the same day]. The con- sistency of the soil was identically the same in both craters. The slopes pre-