Pantasma

Pantasma is an area in the north of the Nicaragua. Pantasma means in the language misquite “small man” or “head punt”. The Galician word Pantasma (Spanish: Fantasma ) comes from the Greek φάντασμα ( phantasma ) and means “phantom”.

In this area is the Vallée of Pantasma , circular of a diameter of more than 12 km (Western 13°22´ Northern and 85°57´). It is crossed by Rio Pantasma, an affluent of Rio Coco (also called Rio Segovia). In its center is the agglomeration Las Praderas, the principal village of the commune Santa Maria de Pantasma (approximately 40 000 inhabitants) in the department of Jinotega. Vallé poor the but fertile one is exploited by the culture of corn, the coffee, of beans, gathering of the fruits and the cattle breeding.

The place is sadly known for the Masacre of Pantasma of October 18th, 1983, at the time which terrorists of the Contra, an anti group financed and armed by the government étasunien under Ronald Reagan, assassinated 47 men, women and children at the time of an attack on the agricultural cooperatives of the valley. October 19th, 1986 a mine of the Contra destroyed a truck on the main street of Pantasma with Jinotega and killed 11 and mutilated 33 civilians. March 23rd, 1987 of the members of the First Veterans Peace Action TEAM of the United States began a walk of the one week peace on this road crossing the valley of Pantasma, to draw the attention to the terror of the Contra, particularly cruel in this part of the country.

Recently, it was emitted the assumption that the Cratère of Pantasma was created by the impact of a meteorite of a diameter of more than 500 m on the tertiary layers effusive of the volcanic mountain in the north of Nicaragua. The circular shape of the crater, the light slope of its ground in direction of the roomy slope of the landscape and its situation appearing arbitrary seem to confirm this assumption. There is not a central lifting or it can already be covered with sediments. It is possible that a ring of ejection exists, but it is only not easily recognizable in the mountain environment. The dimension and the shape of the crater strongly recall the Lac of Bosumtwi to the Ghana of 10 km of diameter and old man of a million years. Its positioning in the landscape resembles in a disconcerting way that of the crater of meteorite of Goat Paddock in Australia (5 km diameter, old man of less 50 million years). The volcanic history of the whole area and the proximity at active volcanic zones go however in favor of a volcanic origin, but nothing makes it possible to prove it for the moment in a final way. (see: Caldeiras explosives, Krakatoa, Tambora, Maria Laach Lake). A specific research of the typical stones of impact (Cones of ray, Suevites, Tektites), being able to prove an impact did not take place yet.

Internal bonds

Affaire Iran-Countered
Nicaragua

Sources

„Tern und Weltraum “, May 2006
Richard Weyl: „Die Geology Mittelamerikas “, Borntraeger, 1961 (ISBN 3-443-11001-0)
Bruno Engels: „Geologische Problematik und Strukturanalyse Nikaraguas “. International Newspaper off Earth Sciences, Springer 1965
Plane of „INETER “, Managua, Nicaragua
NSF close release 96-009
Günther Weber: „Die trotzigen Mühen um die Freiheit, Nicaraguas Bauern kämpfen um ihr Land “. Reports/ratios of the Valley of Pantasma
Sam Dillon: „Has Countered Rampage--With Blessings from the United States “
S. Brian Wilson: „One Third World Legacy “, 1992

See too

Leo Kowald: „Pantasma - a young meteoritic crater in the old volcanic landscape of Nicaragua? “

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