What is the primary morphological difference between a 'makhtesh' and a volcanic caldera or meteorite crater?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: A. It is carved by water erosion breaching an anticline, not volcanic collapse
- Step 1: Unlike calderas (which form from collapsed magma chambers) or impact craters (caused by meteorites), a makhtesh is an erosion cirque.
- Step 2: It forms in asymmetric anticline folds where top limestone layers crack, allowing rivers to wash away soft underlying sandstone from a single drainage gorge.
Answer
It is carved by water erosion breaching an anticline, not volcanic collapse.
Why not the others: Makhtesh craters are not volcanic structures, though basalt dykes are occasionally exposed in the floor; glaciers never extended to the Negev during the Pleistocene; it is a natural geological landform.
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