The "Eye of the Sahara"
Space exploration has only begun, but it has already done something wonderful for us. It has given us the opportunity to learn more about our planet. There is a great deal that we would not learn from ground level. For example, in 1965, NASA astronauts James McDivitt and Edward White on the Gemini 4 mission took photos of this strange phenomenon in the Sahara desert.
from https://geologyscience.com/gallery/geological-wonders/eye-of-the-sahara-or-richat structure.
This Richat Structure is in Mauretania, northwestern Africa. It is about 25 miles (40 km.) in diameter. When it was first described in 1948 by geographer Jacques Richat-Molard it was thought to be an impact crater from a meteor. Geologists who have visited the site more recently say that is not so. It is a dome of igneous rocks, that is, cooled and crystalized volcanic rocks including kimberlite, carbonite, black basalt, and rhyolite. It is estimated to be 100 million years old. It is one of IUGS (International Union of Geological Sciences) first 100 sites that are significant in the development of earth sciences.
Because it is remote in the Sahara desert and is not near any large towns or cities, the Eye of the Sahara has not become a tourist destination. Nevertheless, it is of interest to believers in Atlantis, the “lost continent” believed to have been submerged in the Atlantic ocean just west of the African continent some time in the distant past.. The concentric circles of The Eye suggest to some that the structure resembles artists’ concepts of Atlantis in drawings and sketches that follow Plato’s description of this mysterious place. If it was a remnant of Atlantis, the location could have changed with the movement of the continents. However, archeologists who have visited the site have not found any vestiges of human existence in The Eye.
So the search for Atlantis continues!