Shatter cone

Hello there! Have you ever seen a broken rock or stone? Sometimes, when rocks break, they can break in different ways. One way they can break is by forming a special type of pattern called a shatter cone.

Shatter cones are special patterns that only form in rocks when something really strong, like a big asteroid or meteor, hits the ground really hard. When the asteroid or meteor hits the ground, it sends a lot of energy and shock waves through the rocks. These shock waves are really strong and can make the rocks break in a specific way, which forms the shatter cone pattern.

Shatter cones look kind of like the lines on a snail's shell, but they are much bigger and deeper. They have lines or ridges that point towards the center of where the asteroid hit the ground. This is because the shock waves from the asteroid spread out in all directions, but are strongest at the center where it hit.

Scientists can study shatter cones to learn more about what happened when an asteroid hit the Earth a long, long time ago. It is like looking at a puzzle and figuring out what pieces fit together. Cool, huh?