The mystery has no answer in the Sahara's eyes

According to scientists, Richat structure has a diameter of more than 40km, so even though it appeared from millions of years ago, people never knew its existence. This unique geological structure was discovered by American astronauts Jim McDivitt and Ed White in June 1965 while working on the Gemini 4 spacecraft.

Immediately, huge concentric circles in the middle of the vast desert and the green of the rock caused great attention worldwide. People call this structure the Eye of the Sahara or the Blue Eye of Africa , because the shape resembles a human's eye when it is viewed from space.

Initially, scientists thought it was a crater, formed from meteorite collisions, but this hypothesis was discarded as soon as no signs of molten rock were found.

Richat structure has a very similar shape to the human eye.(Photo: Breathforlifetoday).

Many scientists have been diligently studying this structure, many hypotheses are made. Some people believe that it is caused by meteorites, or volcanic deposits. It is even suggested that the Richat structure is an imprint of an ancient civilization that has disappeared, but all are not recognized.

Today, the most widely known theory is that of two Canadian geologists, Guillaume Matton and Michel Jébrak, launched in 2014, after conducting extensive research. They argue that this structure was formed from a geological change over 100 million years ago.

According to Michel Jébrak, professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal, who specializes in mineral resources, Pangea supercontinent separates Africa and South America. Magma is gradually pushed to the surface of the earth, but unevenly, creating a dome of stone layers, like a huge 'acne' . This also creates fault lines that pass through the eye.

About 100 million years ago, an intense eruption happened that caused this dome to collapse. After that, the erosion of the wind and time did the rest to create the Sahara's Eye that we know today. Each circle has different rocks, they are worn at different speeds. The pale circle near the center of the eye is the volcanic rock created in that explosion.

The location of the Sahara's eyes looked from space.(Photo: NASA).

Here, Michel Jébrak also discovered four types of rocks: kimberlites , about 150 km from the Earth's surface, which sometimes contain diamonds; carbonatites; Black basalt and rhyolite , both are rocks deep beneath the Earth's crust.

However, this idea is still controversial. So far, there has been no really convincing reason to explain why the structure has such a perfect round shape.

The complete look at the "eye" is something that only a few of the billions of people on Earth have the opportunity. Those are astronauts, scientists who carry out the space mission, but still have many visitors, many researchers want to set foot in this strange land. Some 'desert tours' from the town of Oudane, offering jeeps or camels will help travelers do this.

A small hotel is also built in the middle of the structure, though not luxurious but with enough space for visitors and researchers to stop after a long journey through the hot sand desert.