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1.
A newly discovered, morphologically well-preserved crater with a mean diameter of 260 m is reported from the Ophthalmia Range, Western Australia. The crater is located in hilly terrain ～36 km north of Newman, and is situated in the Paleoproterozoic Woongarra Rhyolite and the overlying Boolgeeda Iron Formation. The morphometry of the crater is consistent with features characteristic of small meteorite impact craters. The rhyolite of the crater's rim exhibits widespread shatter features injected by veins of goethite bound by sharply defined zones of hydrous alteration. The alteration zones contain micro-fractures injected by goethite, which also fills cavities in the rhyolite. The goethite veins are interpreted in terms of forceful injection of aqueous iron-rich solutions, probably reflecting high-pressure hydrothermal activity by heated iron-rich ground water. None of these features are present in the Woongarra Rhyolite outside the immediate area of the crater. Petrography of the rhyolite indicates possible incipient intracrystalline dislocations in quartz. The Boolgeeda Iron Formation, which crops out only on the southern rim of the crater, displays brecciation and mega-brecciation superposed on fold structures typical of the banded iron-formations in the region. Geochemical analysis of two goethite veins discloses no siderophile element (Ni and PGE) anomalies, negating any contribution of material from an exploding meteorite. Instead, the strong iron-enrichment of the fractured rhyolite is attributed to a hydrothermal system affecting both the Boolgeeda Iron Formation and the Woongarra Rhyolite, and localised to the area of the crater. An absence of young fragmental volcanic material younger than the Woongarra Rhyolite is inconsistent with an explosive diatreme, leading us to a preferred interpretation in terms of an original impact crater about 80 m deep excavated by a ～10 m-diameter projectile and accompanied by hydrothermal activity. A minor north–south asymmetry of the crater, and an abundance of ejecta north, up to about 300 m northwest and northeast of the crater, suggest high-angle impact from the south. A youthful age of the structure, probably Late Pleistocene (104–105 years old), is indicated by damming of the drainage of a south-southeast-flowing creek by the southern crater rim.  相似文献   

2.
The Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater is an impact structure 880 m in diameter, located in the Tanami Desert near Halls Creek, Western Australia. The crater formed?<?300 000 years ago, and is the second largest crater from which fragments of the impacting meteorite (a medium octahedrite) have been recovered. We present the results of new ground-based geophysical (magnetics and gravity) surveys conducted over the structure in July?–?August 2003. The results highlight the simple structure of the crater under the infilling sediments, and forward modelling is consistent with the true crater floor being 120 m beneath the present surface. The variations in the dip of the foliations around the crater rim confirm that the meteorite approached from the east-northeast, as is also deduced from the ejecta distribution. Crater scaling arguments suggest a projectile diameter of?>?12.0 m, a crater formation time of 3.34 s, and an energy of impact of ～0.235 Mt of TNT. We also use the distribution of shocked quartz in the target rock (Devonian sandstones) to reconstruct the shock loading conditions of the impact. The estimated maximum pressures at the crater rim were between 5.59 and 5.81 GPa. We also use a Simplified Arbitrary Langrangian–Eulerian hydrocode (SALE 2) to simulate the propagation of shock waves through a material described by a Tillotson equation of state. Using the deformational and PT constraints of the Wolfe Creek crater, we estimate the maximum pressures, and the shock-wave attenuation, of this medium-sized impact.  相似文献   

3.
A natural shockwave event led to the formation of a new crystalline polymorph of carbon in gneisses from the Popigai crater, Russia. The new species occupies the interior of a multiphase assemblage and is entirely enveloped by lonsdaleite and graphite. Polishing hardness of this new phase is greater than that of lonsdaleite. Micro-beam synchrotron X-ray diffraction, imaging and fluorescence studies revealed a pure transparent carbon phase. The diffraction pattern is indexed in terms of a cubic cell (a=14.697 Å, space group Pm3m.). This species was neither encountered in static or dynamic high-pressure experiment nor predicted by theoretical calculations. To cite this article: A. El Goresy et al., C. R. Geoscience 335 (2003).  相似文献   

4.
The centre of the 13?×?11 km Spider impact structure, Western Australia, displays an unusual system of eroded folds and imbricated thrusts surrounding a sandstone dome. As inferred from GIS-integrated remote sensing, geological and digital elevation data, the structural setting of the original crater was influenced by, and hence post-dates, the formation of the Mt Barnett Syncline, the east?–?west-oriented axis of which runs through the Spider structure. The syncline formed during the regional Yampi Orogeny (ca 900 Ma), thus constraining the maximum age of the impact event. The sandstone dome in the centre of Spider formed prior to the imbrication, as interpreted from the present setting that indicates a deflection of the southward moving material during the crater collapse. Two modes of formation are discussed in order to explain the south-directed shortening in the Spider impact structure: (i) impact into the bottom of a syncline-controlled palaeovalley leading to uplift of the central crater floor followed by gravity-driven asymmetric sliding preferentially from the northern crater wall and valley slope, respectively; and (ii) moderately oblique (～10?–?30°) impact from the north onto the axis of the syncline, producing a central uplift under the influence of downrange residual momentum and, thus, asymmetric deformation inside the uplift and farther downrange. Neither model alone explains all the observations, and only a combination of both may provide a satisfactory solution.  相似文献   

5.
The Gulpuliyul structure is the eroded remains of a possible impact structure of Mesoproterozoic age, in western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, on the Arnhem Shelf of the northwestern McArthur Basin. Enigmatic, highly deformed and brecciated strata, within the roughly circular or pentagonal feature about 8.5 km across, contrast with mildly deformed rocks of the surrounding Arnhem Shelf. Shock-metamorphic features have yet to be observed. Other features of the Gulpuliyul Structure are: (i) sharp and faulted outer boundaries; (ii) strata within the structure are younger than adjacent country rocks; i.e., the rocks have been emplaced downwards into the structure; (iii) outcrops display an overall concentric or tangential pattern, the stratigraphy is essentially coherent, and there is an overall younging from the centre outwards; and (iv) strata are commonly overturned by southward-directed thrusting and recumbent folding. It is suggested that the projectile impacted at a shallow angle from the north, to produce a southward-deepening crater about 8.5 km across. The depth of the transient crater was probably between ～500?–?700 m (minimum) and ～800 m (maximum). The central uplift probably rebounded only about 300?–?400 m. The present erosion level is thought to lie near the top of the low central uplift, at about or just below the floor of the final crater. The age of the possible impact is Mesoproterozoic (ca 1600?–?1325 Ma); it is most likely to have occurred very early in the Mesoproterozoic (1600?–?1500 Ma).  相似文献   

6.
The Dalgaranga meteorite crater, 100 km northeast of Yalgoo, Western Australia, was one of the first impact structures identified in Australia, the smallest isolated crater found in Australia, and the only confirmed crater in the world associated with a mesosiderite projectile. Seventeen years passed before the Dalgaranga meteorites were described in the scientific literature, and nearly 40 years passed before a survey of the structure was published. The reasons for the time gap were never explained and a number of factual errors about the discovery and early history remain uncorrected in the scientific literature. Using historical and archival documents, and discussions with people involved in Dalgaranga research, the reasons for this time gap are explained by a series of minor misidentifications and coincidences. The age of the crater has yet to be determined, but using published data, we estimate the projectile mass to be 500–1000 kg.  相似文献   

7.
A trachytic tephra, discovered in the ancient lake of Sarliève, ‘Grande Limagne’, has been dated using the thermoluminescence technique. The obtained age, 16±4 ka (2σ), is older than that of the trachytic volcanoes of the Cha??ne des Puys, the ashes of which have already been locally recognised in the region. Its analysis confirms its originality. In the course of the comparisons made to search for its spring, it appears that the wide-dispersion tephra CF7, beforehand correlated by hypothesis to the Puy de Clierzou, probably originates from the Kilian crater or the Puy de Vasset. To cite this article: D. Miallier et al., C. R. Geoscience 336 (2004).  相似文献   

8.
The discovery of the Woodleigh impact structure, first identified by R. P. Iasky, bears a number of parallels with that of the Chicxulub impact structure of K?–?T boundary age, underpinning complications inherent in the study of buried impact structures by geophysical techniques and drilling. Questions raised in connection with the diameter of the Woodleigh impact structure reflect uncertainties in criteria used to define original crater sizes in eroded and buried impact structures as well as limits on the geological controls at Woodleigh. The truncation of the regional Ajana?–?Wandagee gravity ridges by the outer aureole of the Woodleigh structure, a superposed arcuate magnetic anomaly along the eastern part of the structure, seismic-reflection data indicating a central >?37 km-diameter dome, correlation of fault patterns between Woodleigh and less-deeply eroded impact structures (Ries crater, Chesapeake Bay), and morphometric estimates all indicate a final diameter of 120 km. At Woodleigh, pre-hydrothermal shock-induced melting and diaplectic transformations are heavily masked by pervasive alteration of the shocked gneisses to montmorillonite-dominated clays, accounting for the high MgO and low K2O of cryptocrystalline components. The possible contamination of sub-crater levels of the Woodleigh impact structure by meteoritic components, suggested by high Ni, Co, Cr, Ni/Co and Ni/Cr ratios, requires further siderophile element analyses of vein materials. Although stratigraphic age constraints on the impact event are broad (post-Middle Devonian to pre-Early Jurassic) high-temperature (200?–?250°C) pervasive hydrothermal activity dated by K?–?Ar isotopes of illite?–?smectite indicates an age of 359?±?4 Ma. To date neither Late Devonian crater fill, nor impact ejecta fallout units have been identified, although metallic meteoritic ablation spherules of a similar age have been found in the Canning Basin.  相似文献   

9.
Using orbital imaging radar, we have detected a large number of circular structures in the southwestern Egyptian desert, covering more than 4500 km2 close to the Gilf Kebir plateau in sandstones of Upper Cretaceous. Fieldwork confirmed that it is a new impact crater field: 13 craters from 20 m to 1 km in diameter were studied. The impact origin is confirmed by the observation of shock-related structures, such as shatter cones and planar fractures in quartz grains of breccia. Considering the extension of the crater field, it was possibly created by several meteorites that broke up when entering the atmosphere. To cite this article: P. Paillou et al., C. R. Geoscience 336 (2004).

Résumé

À partir d'images satellites issues de systèmes radar, nous avons détecté un grand nombre de structures circulaires dans le Sud-Ouest du désert égyptien, s'étendant sur plus de 4500 km2 à l'est du plateau du Gilf Kebir, dans des grès du Crétacé supérieur. Une étude sur le terrain a permis de vérifier qu'il s'agit d'un champ d'impacts météoritiques jusque là inconnu : 13 structures, d'un diamètre compris entre 20 m et 1 km, ont été reconnues comme cratères d'impact. La présence d'un grand nombre de cônes de percussion et de brèches dans lesquelles des quartz choqués à structures planaires ont été observés confirment l'hypothèse de l'impact. Considérant l'extension du champ d'impact, il a probablement été créé par plusieurs météorites qui se sont fragmentées dans l'atmosphère terrestre. Pour citer cet article : P. Paillou et al., C. R. Geoscience 336 (2004).  相似文献   

10.
The Australian continent has one of the best-preserved impact-cratering records on Earth, closely rivalling that of North America and parts of northern Europe, and the rate of new discoveries remains high. In this review 26 impact sites are described, including five small meteorite craters or crater fields associated with actual meteorite fragments (Boxhole, Dalgaranga, Henbury, Veevers, Wolfe Creek) and 21 variably eroded or buried impact structures (Acraman, Amelia Creek, Connolly Basin, Foelsche, Glikson, Goat Paddock, Gosses Bluff, Goyder, Kelly West, Lawn Hill, Liverpool, Matt Wilson, Mt Toondina, Piccaninny, Shoemaker, Spider, Strangways, Tookoonooka, Woodleigh, Yallalie, Yarrabubba). In addition a number of possible impact structures have been proposed and a short list of 22 is detailed herein. The Australian cratering record is anomalously biased towards old structures, and includes the Earth's best record of Proterozoic impact sites. This is likely to be a direct result of aspects of the continent's unique geological evolution. The Australian impact record also includes distal ejecta in the form of two tektite strewn fields (Australasian strewn field, ‘high-soda’ tektites), a single report of 12.1?–?4.6 Ma microtektites, ejecta from the ca 580 Ma Acraman impact structure, and a number of Archaean to Early Palaeoproterozoic impact spherule layers. Possible impact related layers near the Eocene?–?Oligocene and the Permian?–?Triassic boundaries have been described in the literature, but remain unconfirmed. The global K?–?T boundary impact horizon has not been recognised onshore in Australia but is present in nearby deep-sea cores.  相似文献   

11.
Particle size distribution (PSD) is an often used parameter to describe and quantify fragmentation of deformed rock. Our analyses of shock deformed sandstone show that dynamic fragmentation influences the PSD, expressed as fractal dimension (D-value). Image analysis was used to derive fractal dimensions from a hypervelocity impact cratering experiment (2.5 mm steel sphere, 4.8 km/s) and a planar shock recovery experiment (2.5 GPa). The D-values in the cratering experiment decrease from 1.74 at the crater floor to 0.84 at a distance of 7.2 mm to the crater floor. The D-values found in this experiment are closely related to the microstructural features found at distinct distances from the crater floor. The obtained values are in good agreement with the D-values reported for fault zones, impact sites and deformation experiments. The D-value measured in the shock recovery experiment is 2.42. Such high D-values were usually attributed to abrasive processes related to high strain. Since the strain in our experiment is only ∼23% we suggest that at highly dynamic deformation very high d-values can be reached at small strain. To quantify this, numerical impact modelling has been used to estimate strain rates for the impact experiment. This is related to the activation of more inherent flaws and fracture bifurcation at very high strain rates ∼>102 s−1.  相似文献   

12.
We relate a single-crystal FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) and neutron diffraction study of two natural cancrinites. The structural refinements show that the oxygen site of the H2O molecule lies off the triad axis. The water molecule is almost symmetric and slightly tilted from the (0001) plane. It is involved in bifurcated hydrogen bridges, with Ow···O donor–acceptor distances >2.7 Å. The FTIR spectra show two main absorptions. The first at 3,602 cm?1 is polarized for E ⊥ c and is assigned to the ν3 mode. The second, at 3,531 cm?1, is also polarized for E ⊥ c and is assigned to ν1 mode. A weak component at 4,108 cm?1 could possibly indicate the presence of additional OH groups in the structure of cancrinite. Several overlapping bands in the 1,300–1,500 cm?1 range are strongly polarized for E ⊥ c, and are assigned to the vibrations of the CO3 group.  相似文献   

13.
Goat Paddock in northern Western Australia is a ～5 km-diameter impact crater of Eocene age excavated in gently dipping Proterozoic sandstones. Roughly radial gorges formed by post-impact erosion provide cross-sectional views of the wall and rim zone. The predominant structural theme is one of synclinal rim folding with broad zones in which bedrock strata were deformed by impact to steep, vertical and overturned attitudes. Impact breccia is found craterward of deformed bedrock, on top of it, and downdropped into fault troughs roughly concentric to the crater. The bedrock?–?breccia contact is sharp in some places and gradational in others. In at least one section, the entire mass of upturned bedrock and breccia was displaced radially over essentially undisturbed bedrock, as indicated by slickensides on the horizontal contact. Talus deposits are similar to breccia, but show rough size sorting and clast orientation that dips steeply craterward, indicating that the talus formed as slides down the oversteepened crater wall immediately after crater formation. Shatter cones in some clasts indicate that allogenic material is incorporated in these deposits. Suevite, characterised by ropy flow textures, and by microclasts of quartz with planar deformation features, planar fractures, and of vesiculated silica glass, was found overlying deformed bedrock at a point where the surface of the bedrock forms a nearly horizontal bench midway up the crater wall. The crater was at least partially filled by later sediments, represented by bedded conglomerate close to the crater wall grading inward to sand, silt and mudstone recovered by drillholes on the crater floor. Some of the talus and conglomerate occupy re-entrants in the crater walls, suggesting an original scalloped outline to the crater. Two drillholes, one central and one halfway to the wall, both reached brecciated sandstone after penetrating 210 m of lake sediments. Goat Paddock has a flat floor with no indication of a central uplift and a depth/diameter ratio of ～0.073. This crater form, coupled with the modification of the crater walls by slumping and the scalloped outline of the crater rim suggests that Goat Paddock bridges the two traditional classes of impact crater: simple and complex.  相似文献   

14.
Large impacts are credited with the most devastating mass extinctions in Earth's history and the Cretaceous?–?Tertiary (K/T) boundary impact is the strongest and sole direct support for this view. A review of the five largest Phanerozoic mass extinctions provides no support that impacts with craters up to 180 km in diameter caused significant species extinctions. This includes the 170 km-diameter Chicxulub impact crater regarded as 0.3 million years older than the K/T mass extinction. A second, larger impact event may have been the ultimate cause of this mass extinction, as suggested by a global iridium anomaly at the K/T boundary, but no crater has been found to date. The current crater database suggests that multiple impacts, for example comet showers, were the norm, rather than the exception, during the Late Eocene, K/T transition, latest Triassic and the Devonian?–?Carboniferous transition, but did not cause significant species extinctions. Whether multiple impacts substantially contributed to greenhouse warming and associated environmental stresses is yet to be demonstrated. From the current database, it must be concluded that no known Phanerozoic impacts, including the Chicxulub impact (but excluding the K/T impact) caused mass extinctions or even significant species extinctions. The K/T mass extinction may have been caused by the coincidence of a very large impact (>?250 km) upon a highly stressed biotic environment as a result of volcanism. The consistent association of large magmatic provinces (large igneous provinces and continental flood-basalt provinces) with all but one (end-Ordovician) of the five major Phanerozoic mass extinctions suggests that volcanism played a major role. Faunal and geochemical evidence from the end-Permian, end-Devonian, end-Cretaceous and Triassic/Jurassic transition suggests that the biotic stress was due to a lethal combination of tectonically induced hydrothermal and volcanic processes, leading to eutrophication in the oceans, global warming, sea-level transgression and ocean anoxia. It must be concluded that major magmatic events and their long-term environmental consequences are major contributors, though not the sole causes of mass extinctions. Sudden mass extinctions, such as at the K/T boundary, may require the coincidence of major volcanism and a very large Impact.  相似文献   

15.
The Lawn Hill circular structure in northwest Queensland contains unambiguous evidence of an extraterrestrial impact, including planar deformation features in quartz, impact diamonds, widespread shatter cone formation and impact melt breccia in the Mesoproterozoic basement. The question of its relevance to ore genesis is investigated because the world-class Century Zn – Pb deposit is situated at the conjunction of the 100+ km Termite Range Fault and the previously defined margin of the impact structure. The impact structure is considered to be a 19.5 km wide feature, this constrained in part by the outer margin of an annulus of brecciated and highly contorted limestone. New evidence is presented indicating impact into this Cambrian limestone, including: (i) ‘dykes’ of brecciated Cambrian limestone extending hundreds of metres into the Mesoproterozoic basement; (ii) highly contorted bedding in the limestone annulus compared with essentially undeformed limestone away from the impact site; as well as (iii) a 1 Mt megaclast of Mesoproterozoic Century-like ore suspended in the limestone. Through aerial photograph analysis, large-scale convoluted flow structures within the limestone are identified, and these are interpreted to indicate that parts of the Cambrian sequence may have been soft or only semi-consolidated at the time of impact. This highly contorted limestone bedding is suggested to represent slump-filling of an annular trough in response to impact-induced partial liquefaction of a sediment veneer. The age of impact is therefore considered to be concurrent with limestone formation during the Ordian to early Templetonian, at 520 – 510 Ma. Formation of the Century deposit is found to be unrelated to impact-generated hydrothermal activity, although some minor hydrothermal remobilisation of metals occurred. However, there was macro-scale remobilisation of gigantic ore fragments driven by impact-induced lateral and vertical injection of limestone into the Proterozoic sediments. The limestone-filled annular trough surrounds a 7.8 km diameter central uplift, consistent with formation of a complex crater morphology.  相似文献   

16.
The compressibility of antigorite has been determined up to 8.826(8) GPa, for the first time by single crystal X-ray diffraction in a diamond anvil cell, on a specimen from Cerro del Almirez. Fifteen pressure–volume data, up to 5.910(6) GPa, have been fit by a third-order Birch–Murnaghan equation of state, yielding V 0 = 2,914.07(23) Å3, K T0 = 62.9(4) GPa, with K′ = 6.1(2). The compression of antigorite is very anisotropic with axial compressibilities in the ratio 1.11:1.00:3.22 along a, b and c, respectively. The new equation of state leads to an estimation of the upper stability limit of antigorite that is intermediate with respect to existing values, and in better agreement with experiments. At pressures in excess of 6 GPa antigorite displays a significant volume softening that may be relevant for very cold subducting slabs.  相似文献   

17.
The Têt Fault looks like an active fault. Its activity, attested for Pliocene, remains discussed for Pleistocene. We propose a new scenario of evolution for the Têt Fault, highlighting the importance of Pleistocene exhumation processes. It is based on a relationship between morphology and basin filling. During Pleistocene, the fault activity is weak and vertical displacements seem to have no considerable impact on the drainage features. This study concludes that Pliocene offset may also be reduced: the fault activity generating relief is anterior to Pliocene. To cite this article: J.-M. Carozza, S. Baize, C. R. Geoscience 336 (2004).  相似文献   

18.
A large travertine outcrop south of Errachidia, southern Morocco, was studied and U/Th dated. The carbonate fraction was provided by groundwaters then, as now, from the eastern High Atlas percolating through the regional Infra-Cenomanian aquifer. There were two main periods of accumulation at ca 262 kyr BP and 20–11.5 kyr BP separated by a long discontinuity with some limited weathering and erosion and correlated in part with a period of erosion at 30–20 kyr BP further to the west. The two travertine-deposition periods suggest increased rainfall and/or cooler thermal conditions in the eastern High Atlas source regions. Massive travertine accumulation ceased at the end of the Upper Pleistocene. To cite this article: L. Boudad et al., C. R. Geoscience 335 (2003).To cite this article: L. Boudad et al., C. R. Geoscience 335 (2003).  相似文献   

19.
For regional and national study purposes, there is a high need for updating the terrain corrections (TC) in the French gravity database. We have recomputed the TC for all the French gravity stations from 50 m out to a distance of 167 km. We compute the TC with a flat-top-prism algorithm and three DEM with grid spacing of 50, 250 and 1000 m, used in the zones 53 m/3 km, 3 km/10 km et 10 km/167 km, respectively. Analysing the DEM/station Δz and comparing our results to the ones previously obtained in the Alps area, we estimate the accuracy of our TC to be better than 1 mGal. To cite this article: G. Martelet et al., C. R. Geoscience 334 (2002) 449–454.  相似文献   

20.
Sixteen crater samples were analyzed by radiochemical neutron activation analysis for Ge, Ir, Ni, Os, Pd and Re. Two impact melt rock samples from Clearwater East (22 km) showed strong, uniform enrichments in all elements except Ge, corresponding to 7.4% C1 chondrite material. Interelement ratios suggest that the meteorite was a C1 (or C2) chondrite, not an iron, stony iron, or chondrite of another type. An Ivory Coast tektite (related to the 10 km Bosumtwi crater) was enriched in Ir + Os and Ni to about 0.04 and 1.6% of C1 chondrite levels, but in the absence of data on country rocks, the meteorite cannot yet be characterized.Impact melt rock samples from Clearwater West (32km), Manicouagan (70km), and Mistastin (28 km) showed no detectable meteoritic component. Upper limits, as Cl chondrite equivalent, were Os ≤ 2 × 10?3% (~0.01 ppb), Ni ≤ 2 × 10?1% (~20ppm). Possible causes are high impact velocity and/or a chemically inconspicuous meteorite (achondrite, Ir,Os-poor iron or stony iron). However, a more likely reason is that some fraction of the impact melt remains meteorite-free, especially at craters with central peaks.Clearwater East is the first terrestrial impact crater found to be associated with a stony meteorite. Apparently the consistent absence of stony projectiles at small craters (< 1 km diameter) reflects their destruction in the atmosphere, as proposed by Öpik.  相似文献   

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