Sudbury - Hypervelocity Impact Crater

Alternate Names
Local Language
Coordinates 46° 35' 36" N; 81° 8' 20" W
Notes
  1. Central Ontario, just N of Georgian Bay and NW of Lake Nippissing. The city of Sudbury is located just to the SE.
Country Canada
Region Ontario
Date Confirmed 1964
Notes
  1. Shatter cones found (Dietz, 1964).
Buried? No
Notes
  1. Onaping Formation, Onwatin Slates and Chelmsford Sandstones comprise the filling complex.
Drilled? Yes
Notes
  1. Extensive underground mining in connection with nickel occurrences within the Sudbury Igneous Complex.
Target Type Crystalline
Notes
  1. The basin is surrounded by Archean (2.5 Ga) granites and related rocks of the superior province to the N and W, which Huronian (2.3 Ga) and pre-Huronian metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks occur in the S and E (Ogilvie et al., 1984).
Sub-Type Metasedimentary, Metavolcanics, Granite
Apparent Crater Diameter (km) 200 km
Age (Ma) 1849.53 ± 0.21
Notes :
  1. 1849.53 ± 0.21 Ma determined by U-Pb (CA-TIMS) on melt grown zircon in norite of the Sudbury Igneous Complex (Krogh et al., 1984) (Davis 2008).

Method :
  1. U-Pb
Impactor Type Unknown

Advanced Data Fields

Notes

Erosion
5
  1. Eroded with no rim and remnants of the melt-breccia complex preserved; outer crater floor is exposed (Ogilvie et al., 1984).
Final Rim Diameter
Unknown
Apparent Rim Diameter
200 km
  1. Estimates of apparent crater diameter include ~150-200 km or up to 260 km (Grieve et al., 2008).
Rim Reliability Index
3
  1. Metamorphism has deformed the original crater into an ellipse; the 2.5 km thick melt is 59 x 27 km; the zone of deformation (Shatter cones and shock metamorphism) is seen to 74 km (Pye et al., 1984).
Crater Morphology
Complex
Central Uplift Diameter
km
Central Uplift Height
Unknown
Uplift Reliability Index
Structural Uplift
Unknown
Thickness of Seds
Target Age
Precambrian
Marine
No
Impactor Type
Other Shock Metamorphism
Shock-twinned zircon
  1. Detrital shocked zircon (Thomson et al. 2014). shocked zircon in bedrock (Krogh et al., 1984, 1996). "
Shatter Cones
Yes
  1. Shatter cones in footwall rocks, in a zone up to 17 km wide in the N; cones up to 3 m in length (Dietz, 1964) (Guy-Bray et al., 1966)(Bischoff et al., 1992). Shatter cone size range from 1 cm to several meters / apical angles between 75-90° (Gibson and Spray, 1998). Report on shatter cones and location map in (Guy-Bray et al., 1966). Shatter cones in Ramsay Lake conglomerate and in Mississagi quartzite (Dietz and Butler, 1964). Shatter cones around the entire basin to distance as great as 17 km (French, 1968).
Planar Fractures
No
Planar Deformation Features
Yes
  1. PDF in quartz grains (French, 1968) (French, 1972) (Dressler, 1984) (Bischoff et al., 1992), in feldspar grains (French, 1968) (French, 1970) and in zircon grains (Bohor and Betterton, 1992).
Diaplectic Glass
No
Coesite
No
Stisovite
No
Crater Fill
LB, MB, M
  1. ~3 km thick, ~60 x 30 km, differentiated impact melt sheet (Sudbury igeneous complex - SIC). It is holocrystalline, phaneritic and predominantly clast-free. Rock types include norites, quartz gabbro and granophyres. Geochemically, the SIC has an average composition corresponding to diorite/granodiorite. Immiscibility between a silicate and a sulfide melt occurred (Osinski et al., 2018 and references therein). More than 10000 km3 of melt was produced. ~1.5 km thick Onaping Formation. It lies above the SIC and contains MB. Vitric material is mainly mm-sized and comprises up to 60 vol% of the Sandcherry Member and up to 40% of the Dowling Member. It is well to very well sorted and the groundmass is fine-grained and clastic (Osinski et al., 2016 and references therein). The Offset Dyke refers to a set of holocrystalline, phaneritic, ~10 to 80 m wide and up to 50 km long melt dykes of mainly granodioritic/quartz diorite composition that extend radially from the SIC (Osinski et al., 2018 and references therein). Distal ejecta contains glass and is found at distances up to 700 km. Table 1 in (Osinski et al., 2016). Ejecta is stratigraphic column in Ontario and Michigan (e.g., Addison et al., 2005). V.o.M. via Table 1 of (Grieve and Cintala, 1992)
Proximal Ejecta
Distal Ejecta
G
Dykes
M, LB
Volume of Melt
8000 km3>10000 km3
Depth of Melting
3 km

References

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F Molnár, D H Watkinson, P C Jones (2001) Multiple hydrothermal processes in footwall units of the north range, Sudbury igneous complex, Canada, and implications for the genesis of vein-type Cu-Ni-PGE deposits, Economic Geology 96, p. 1645-1670, url

O Abramov, D A Kring (2004) Numerical modeling of an impact-induced hydrothermal system at the Sudbury crater, Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets 109(E10), p. 1-16, url, doi:10.1029/2003JE002213

U Riller (2005) Structural characteristics of the Sudbury impact structure, Canada: Impact-induced versus orogenic deformation - A review, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 40(11), p. 1723-1740, url, doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.2005.tb00140.x

D E Ames, I R Jonasson, H L Gibson, K O Pope (2006) Impact-generated hydrothermal system - constraints from the large Paleoproterozoic Sudbury crater, Canada, Biological Processes Associated with Impact Events, p. 387, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, url

D H Rousell, J J Paakki, M J Gray (2009) Mineralization in the Whitewater group, A Field Guide to the Geology of Sudbury, Ontario, DH Rousell, GH Brown (ed.), p. 132-140, Ontario (ONTARIO GEOLOGICAL SURVEY - Open File Report 6243), url

R A F Grieve, D E Ames, J V Morgan, N A Artemieva (2010) The evolution of the Onaping Formation at the Sudbury impact structure, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 45(5), p. 759-782, url, doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.2010.01057.x

R Dreuse, D Doman, T Santimano, U Riller (2010) Crater floor topography and impact melt sheet geometry of the Sudbury impact structure, Canada, Terra Nova 22(6), p. 463-469, url, doi:10.1111/j.1365-3121.2010.00965.x

P Tschirhart, B Morris (2012) Grenville age deformation of the Sudbury impact structure: Evidence from magnetic modelling of the Sudbury diabase dyke swarm, Terra Nova 24(3), p. 213-220, url, doi:10.1111/j.1365-3121.2011.01056.x

J E Moores, R Francis, M Mader, G R Osinski, T Barfoot, N Barry, G Basic, M Battler, M Beauchamp, S Blain, M Bondy, R D Capitan, A Chanou, J Clayton, Edward A Cloutis, M C Daly, C Dickinson, H Dong, Roberta L Flemming, P Furgale, J Gammel, N Ghafoor, M Hussein, R Grieve, H Henrys, P Jaziobedski, A Lambert, K Leung, C Marion, E McCullough, C McManus, C D Neish, H K Ng, A Ozaruk, A Pickersgill, L J Preston, D Redman, H Sapers, B Shankar, A Singleton, K Souders, B Stenning, P Stooke, P Sylvester, L Tornabene (2012) A mission control architecture for robotic lunar sample return as field tested in an analogue deployment to the sudbury impact structure, Advances in Space Research 50(12), p. 1666-1686, url, doi:10.1016/j.asr.2012.05.008

G Tuba, F Molnár, D E Ames, A Péntek, D H Watkinson, P C Jones (2014) Multi-stage hydrothermal processes involved in “low-sulfide” Cu(–Ni)–PGE mineralization in the footwall of the Sudbury igneous complex (Canada): Amy lake PGE zone, east range, Mineralium Deposita 49(1), p. 7-47, url, doi:10.1007/s00126-013-0468-1

J A Petrus, D E Ames, B S Kamber (2015) On the track of the elusive Sudbury impact; geochemical evidence for a chondrite or comet bolide, Terra Nova 27(1), p. 9-20, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ter.12125

A B Coulter, G R Osinski (2015) The nature and origin of the garson member of the onaping formation, Sudbury impact structure, Canada, Special Paper of the Geological Society of America 518, p. 165-176, url, doi:10.1130/2015.251811

J A Petrus, G G Kenny, J A Ayer, P C Lightfoot, B S Kamber (2016) Uranium-lead zircon systematics in the Sudbury impact crater-fill; implications for target lithologies and crater evolution, Journal of the Geological Society of London 173(1), p. 59-75, Geological Society of London, London, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1144/jgs2014-056

K Papapavlou, J R Darling, C D Storey, P C Lightfoot, D E Moser, S Lasalle (2017) Dating shear zones with plastically deformed titanite: New insights into the orogenic evolution of the Sudbury impact structure (Ontario, Canada), Precambrian Research 291, p. 220-235, url, doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2017.01.007

E A Pilles, G R Osinski, R A F Grieve, A B Coulter, D Smith, J M Bailey (2018) The Pele Offset Dykes, Sudbury impact structure, Canada, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 55(3), p. 230-240, url, doi:10.1139/cjes-2017-0146

E A Pilles, G R Osinski, R A F Grieve, D Smith, J M Bailey (2018) Formation of large-scale impact melt dikes: A case study of the Foy Offset Dike at the Sudbury impact structure, Canada, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 495, p. 224-233, url, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2018.05.023

K Papapavlou, J R Darling, P C Lightfoot, S Lasalle, L Gibson, C D Storey, D Moser (2018) Polyorogenic reworking of ore-controlling shear zones at the south range of the Sudbury impact structure: A telltale story from in situ U–Pb titanite geochronology, Terra Nova 30(3), p. 254-261, url, doi:10.1111/ter.12332

L E Debono, G R Osinski (2018) Spatial and geochemical relationships between footwall granophyre and sulfide Ni-Cu-PGE veins, Sudbury impact structure, Canada, Lunar & Planetary Science Conference, p. 2369, pdf

R A F Grieve, G R Osinski (2020) The upper contact unit of the Sudbury igneous complex in the Garson region: Constraints on the depth of origin of a peak ring at the Sudbury impact structure, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 55(8), url, doi:10.1111/maps.13542

D Anders, G R Osinski, R A F Grieve, E A Pilles, A Pentek, D Smith (2020) Origin and formation of metabreccia in the parkin offset dike, Sudbury impact structure, Canada, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 57(11), p. 1324-1336, url, doi:10.1139/cjes-2019-0075

Yevgeniy P. Gurov, Vitaliy V. Permiakov (2023) Metal microspherules in breccias of the Onaping Formation, Sudbury impact structure, Ontario, Canada, Meteoritics and Planetary Science 58(8), p. 1067-1078, University of Arkansa, doi:10.1111/maps.13999