Karoo (crater) Karoo (crater) Karoo is an impact crater on the Asteroid 253 Mathilde, named for the Great Karoo Basin, a coal basin in South Africa. It is 33.4 kilometers in diameter and was the most prominent crater seen during NEAR Shoemaker's Flyby of the Asteroid. The critical crater diameter is the scale at which cratering “goes global” and results in a solitary distinct crater. All smaller craters—however large D might be—are local events. Mathilde is thus a particularly interesting case, since it is the largest asteroid imaged at sufficient resolution to show that its topography is clearly exogenic, governed by impacts.
Gulf of Oman desert and semi-desert Gulf of Oman desert and semi-desert The Gulf of Oman desert and semi-desert is a coastal ecoregion on the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman in Oman and the United Arab Emirates at the northeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. The climate is hot and dry; the ecoregion contains a mixture of habitats including mangrove swamps, lagoons and mudflats on the coast, and gravelly plains and savanna with thorny acacia trees inland. The mangrove areas are dominated by "Avicennia marina" and the savanna by "Prosopis cineraria" and "Vachellia tortilis". Masirah Island is an important breeding area for the loggerhead