Serpent Mound crater, also known as the Serpent Mound Disturbance, is an eroded meteorite impact crater in Ohio, United States. It lies largely in Adams County, with the northern part mostly in Highland County, except for a small northeast part in Pike County.
It is classified as a complex crater because it features a central uplift, a transition zone, and a ring graben (a ring-shaped trough in the outer part of the crater). Although eroded, the original rim diameter is estimated at 8 km (5.0 mi) and the age is estimated to be less than 320 million years (Mississippian or younger).
The crater is named after the Serpent Mound, an effigy mound, located on a plateau in Brush Creek Valley within the crater.
Famous quotes containing the words serpent, mound and/or crater:
“There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: the way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.”
—Bible: Hebrew Proverbs, 30:18-19.
From the oracle of Agur, son of Jakeh.
““... It is not the stones,
But the child’s mound ...”
“Don’t, don’t, don’t,
don’t,” she cried.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Give me a condor’s quill! Give me Vesuvius’ crater for an inkstand!”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)