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Holocene impact craters on Earth

Anna Losiak
Anna Losiak
   | Oct 31, 2023
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Published Online: Oct 31, 2023
Page range: 165 - 171
Received: May 08, 2023
Accepted: Sep 25, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/mgrsd-2023-0016
Keywords
© 2023 Anna Losiak, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Figure 1.

Distribution of ~200 impact craters on Earth. Black circles indicate the location of Holocene structures: black circles with a small white circle inside show the location of craters whose formation was witnessed (Carancas and Sikhote Alin). Black circles with a white rectangle inside show the location of craters where shock metamorphic features were found (Kamil and Wabar). Fully black circles show the location of structures whose impact origin was confirmed solely by an association with meteorites. Black circles with a gray circle inside show the location of probable, but not confirmed, impact craters – ones that are not associated with known meteorites (Ilumetsa and Sobolev). The location of all other impact craters is shown using white circles Source: own study based on Schmieder & Kring 2020, and articles listed in Table 1.
Distribution of ~200 impact craters on Earth. Black circles indicate the location of Holocene structures: black circles with a small white circle inside show the location of craters whose formation was witnessed (Carancas and Sikhote Alin). Black circles with a white rectangle inside show the location of craters where shock metamorphic features were found (Kamil and Wabar). Fully black circles show the location of structures whose impact origin was confirmed solely by an association with meteorites. Black circles with a gray circle inside show the location of probable, but not confirmed, impact craters – ones that are not associated with known meteorites (Ilumetsa and Sobolev). The location of all other impact craters is shown using white circles Source: own study based on Schmieder & Kring 2020, and articles listed in Table 1.

Figure 2.

Kaali crater strewn field Source: own work based on LIDAR data from the Estonian Land Board 2023
Kaali crater strewn field Source: own work based on LIDAR data from the Estonian Land Board 2023

A list of Holocene impact craters sorted by the diameter of the largest structure. The list does not include features: (1) older than 10 ka (e.g., Douglas: Kenkmann et al. 2018); (2) terminal pits (e.g., Sterlitamak: Petaev 1992); (3) not confirmed yet by commonly accepted recognition criteria, described by French & Koeberl (2010). The list includes two structures (Ilumetsa and Sobolev) that are not associated with any identified meteorite fragments (so they are not officially confirmed) but circumstantial evidence suggests they were formed by an impact. The list also contains two confirmed craters (Dalgaranga and Veevers) whose age has only been estimated to be a couple of thousand years based on their morphology. Source: own study based on literature research – especially sources listed in the table.

Crater Parameters References
Crater Country Coordinates Diameter of the largest crater [m] Age Impactor type No. craters
Carancas Peru 16° 39′ 52″ S; 69° 2′ 39″ W 14 2007 AD H4-5 1 Tancredi et al. 2009
Haviland USA 37° 34′ 57″ N; 99° 9′ 50″ W 15 0.2 ka Pallasite 1 Honda et al. 2002
Dalgaranga * Australia 27° 38′ 6″ S; 117° 17′ 20″ E 24 ? M.siderite 1 Hamacher et al. 2013
Sikhote Alin Russia 46° 9′ 36″ N; 134° 39′ 12″ E 27 1947 AD IIAB 5 +n Krinov 1971
Whitecourt Canada 53° 59′ 56″ N; 115° 35′ 51″ W 36 1.1 ka IIIAB 1 Herd et al. 2008
Kamil Egypt 22° 1′ 6″ N; 26° 5′ 16″ E 45 2000 BC–500 AD Iron, ungr. 1 Sighinolfi et al. 2015
Sobolev ** Russia 46° 18′ 0″ N; 137° 52′ 0″ E 53 ? / <1 ka ? 1 Khryanina 1981
Campo d. Cielo Argentina 27° 36′ 35″ S; 61° 40′ 53″ W 65×105 4 ka IAB 4 +n Cassidy et al. 1965
Ilumetsa ** Estonia 57°57′36″N; 27°24′11″E 80 7 ka ? 2 Losiak et al. 2020
Veevers * Australia 22° 58′ 12″ S; 125° 22′ 21″ E 80 ? IIAB 1 Shoemaker et al. 2005
Morasko Poland 52° 29′ 25″ N; 16° 53′ 48″ E 100 5 ka IAB-MG 7 Szokaluk et al. 2019
Kaali Estonia 58° 22′ 22″ N; 22° 40′ 10″ E 110 3.5 ka IAB 8 Losiak et al. 2016
Wabar Saudi Arabia 21° 29′ 58″ N; 50° 28′ 7″ E 116 ~19th century IIIA 5 Gnos et al. 2013
Henbury Australia 24° 34′ 19″ S; 133° 8′ 53″ E 157 4.2 ka IIIAB 13 Shoemaker et al. 2005
Boxhole Australia 22° 36′ 46″ S; 135° 11′ 43″ E 170 3 ka IIAB 1 Shoemaker et al. 2005
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