Saqqar - Hypervelocity Impact Crater

Alternate Names N/A
Coordinates 29° 35' 12" N; 38° 41' 46" E
Notes
  1. Nafud Basin of northern Saudi Arabia. NW Saudi Arabia. An area of partially exposed solid geology and gentle topography at an elevation of 600 to 700 m.
Country Saudi Arabia
Region Jawf
Date Confirmed 2015
Notes
  1. Confirmed based on discovery of PDF's and PF's (Kenkmann et al., 2015).
Buried? Yes
Notes
  1. Beneath 400 m of Cretaceous sediments. under ~400 m of Cretaceous-Palaeogene strata in Nafud basin (Neville et al., 2014).
Drilled? Yes
Notes
  1. Drilled for Hydrocarbons. The central high is imaged on seismic and has been drilled by several wells. One well is deep; the others are shallow wells drilled to depths less than 1,500 m.
Target Type Sedimentary
Notes
  1. Cambrian to Devonian siliclastics. Formed in Devonian siliciclastics (Neville et al., 2014). Shallow marine.
Sub-Type Siliclastic
Apparent Crater Diameter (km) 34 km
Age (Ma) 70 - 410
Notes :
  1. Since no ejecta material has been found in nearby Devonian outcrops to date, the age of the Saqqar impact structure is poorly constrained to being between Late Devonian and Late Cretaceous (Neville et al., 2014). The age of impact is not well constrained and lies somewhere between 70 to 410 Ma (Kenkmann et al., 2015).

Method :
  1. Stratigraphy
Impactor Type Unknown

Advanced Data Fields

Notes

Local Language
N/A
Erosion
6
  1. Poorly known. Deeply eroded. Based on the absence of distinctive crater-fill deposits the level of pre-Late Cretaceous erosion reached close to, or deeper than the crater floor (Neville et al., 2014).
Final Rim Diameter
Unknown
Apparent Rim Diameter
34 km
  1. Diameter of 34 km determined on the basis of geophysical methods (Kenkmann et al., 2015).
Rim Reliability Index
1
  1. Central uplift via (Kenkmann et al., 2015). "Stratal uplift of over 2 km within the center of the structure was measured on Siluro-Ordovicianstratigraphic markers" with an expected calculated stratigraphic uplift of 2.9 km (Kenkmann et al., 2015).
Crater Morphology
Complex
Central Uplift Diameter
Unknown
Central Uplift Height
2 km
Uplift Reliability Index
Unknown
Structural Uplift
2 km
Thickness of Seds
Unknown
Target Age
Palaeozoic
Marine
No
Impactor Type
Unknown
Other Shock Metamorphism
Pressure Feather Feaures, shocked feldspar deformed mica
  1. The recorded shock pressure ranges between 5 and 15 GPa (Kenkmann et al., 2015). Feather features, shocked feldspar and deformed mica (Kenkmann et al., 2015)."
Shatter Cones
No
  1. Buried impact structure.
Planar Fractures
Yes
  1. (Kenkmann et al., 2015)
Planar Deformation Features
Yes
  1. PDF with orientations (along, 0001), {10 13}, and less frequently along {10 11} and {10 14} (Kenkmann et al., 2015).
Diaplectic Glass
No
Coesite
No
Stisovite
No
Crater Fill
Unknown
  1. Based on the absence of crater-fill deposits in drill cores, the level of pre-Late Cretaceous erosion reached the crater floor (Neville et al., 2014) (Kenkmann et al., 2015).
Proximal Ejecta
Unknown
Distal Ejecta
Unknown
Dykes
Unknown
Volume of Melt
Unknown
Depth of Melting
Unknown

References

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A S Neville, D J Cook, A M Afifi, S A Stewart (2014) Five buried crater structures imaged on reflection seismic data in Saudi Arabia, GeoArabia 19(1), p. 17-44, url

T Kenkmann, A M Afifi, S A Stewart, M H Poelchau, D J Cook, A S Neville (2015) Saqqar: A 34 km diameter impact structure in Saudi Arabia, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 50(11), p. 1925-1940, Meteoritical Society, Fayetteville, AR, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/maps.12555

M C Chabou (2019) Meteorite impact structures in the Arab world: An overview, The geology of the Arab world--An overview, p. 455-506, Springer, url, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-96794-3_13