Post by Catsmate on Sept 24, 2014 11:25:52 GMT
A short seed this time.
The Sirente crater is a smallish (120m), seasonal, lake in central Italy, located in the middle of the Prati del Sirente, an area of mountainous highland to the north of the Sirente massif in the Apennines; pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It has been provisionally dated to about ~500CE.
The age is based on radiocarbon dating and some evidence of a calamity in the area, i.e. the abrupt abandonment of the nearby village and a sudden influx of bodies in catacombs in the area. There is also oral history suggestive of an impact.
Until the late 1990s the lake was of negligible interest to the world at large, until a Swedish geologist (one Jens Ormö) studied the lake and suggested that ridges near the site indicated the crater was formed by a meteorite impact. Further study concluded that the lake was the product of the impact of a meteor with the energy of a small (low-kilotonne) nuclear bomb.
This explanation is disputed by other scientists, who have have pointed to a general lack of evidence for such a collision, and suggested that the lake was formed either by human excavation or by geological processes.
The impact hypothesis and the dating of the crater formation has caused speculation about the conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity.
Ormö noted that Constantine and his army were camped about 100km from the Sirente crater before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (28OCT0312) and suggested that the fireball and trail from the meteor's passing through the atmosphere might have been the "cross of light in the heavens" mentioned by Constantine.
Of course in a Who game such rampant speculation could be correct, and the 'meteor' perhaps more than just a random chunk of rock from space. It could be a deliberately caused spectacle, a crashing spaceship or escape pod or a time-ship. The abandoned village and deaths could have been caused by whatever was in the spacecraft.
And the circumstances of Constantine's conversion to Christianity could also be of interest to time travelling researchers, who may cause additional complications.
The Sirente crater is a smallish (120m), seasonal, lake in central Italy, located in the middle of the Prati del Sirente, an area of mountainous highland to the north of the Sirente massif in the Apennines; pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It has been provisionally dated to about ~500CE.
The age is based on radiocarbon dating and some evidence of a calamity in the area, i.e. the abrupt abandonment of the nearby village and a sudden influx of bodies in catacombs in the area. There is also oral history suggestive of an impact.
Until the late 1990s the lake was of negligible interest to the world at large, until a Swedish geologist (one Jens Ormö) studied the lake and suggested that ridges near the site indicated the crater was formed by a meteorite impact. Further study concluded that the lake was the product of the impact of a meteor with the energy of a small (low-kilotonne) nuclear bomb.
This explanation is disputed by other scientists, who have have pointed to a general lack of evidence for such a collision, and suggested that the lake was formed either by human excavation or by geological processes.
- The area has numerous smaller pools, up to 20m in diameter, which are littered with metallic fragments characteristic of military bombing.
The impact hypothesis and the dating of the crater formation has caused speculation about the conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity.
Ormö noted that Constantine and his army were camped about 100km from the Sirente crater before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (28OCT0312) and suggested that the fireball and trail from the meteor's passing through the atmosphere might have been the "cross of light in the heavens" mentioned by Constantine.
Of course in a Who game such rampant speculation could be correct, and the 'meteor' perhaps more than just a random chunk of rock from space. It could be a deliberately caused spectacle, a crashing spaceship or escape pod or a time-ship. The abandoned village and deaths could have been caused by whatever was in the spacecraft.
And the circumstances of Constantine's conversion to Christianity could also be of interest to time travelling researchers, who may cause additional complications.