Upheaval Dome - Hypervelocity Impact Crater

Alternate Names
Local Language
Coordinates 38° 26' 13" N; 109° 55' 45" W
Notes
  1. In SE Utah in Canyonlands National Park, San Juan County.
Country United States of America
Region Utah
Date Confirmed 2008
Notes
  1. Widely debated to be of impact versus salt diapir origin. Wasn't until 2000s that rare PDFs in quartz were documented (Buchner and Kenkmann, 2008).
Buried? No
Notes
  1. Very well exposed in Canyonlands National Park, Utah.
Drilled? Yes
Notes
  1. Drilling records are mentioned by Joesting and Pluoff (1958).
Target Type Sedimentary
Notes
  1. Permian, Triassic and Jurassic sandstones, mudstones and shales (Joesting and Plouff, 1958).
Sub-Type Mudstone, Sandstone, Shale
Apparent Crater Diameter (km) 5.2 km
Age (Ma) <183
Notes :
  1. Minimum age: Undefined, "possibly as late as a few million years ago" during late denudation of central Colorado Plateau (Kriens et al., 1999). Maximum age: 183 Ma determined by stratigraphic constraints: "after deposition of the Navajo Sandstone" (Kriens et al., 1999) [Navajo Sandstone was deposited in Early Jurassic] Other age constraints: Restoration of the eroded strata implies that the impact occurred near the end of the Cretaceous or in the Palaeogene time (Shoemaker and Herkenhoff, 1984).

Method :
  1. Stratigraphy
Impactor Type Unknown

Advanced Data Fields

Notes

Erosion
7
  1. Ejecta and rim eroded; as much as 2 km of rock may have been removed from the region since crater formation (Shoemaker and Herkenhoff, 1984).
Final Rim Diameter
Unknown
Apparent Rim Diameter
5.2 km
  1. The outer limit of the structure is defined by a rim monocline of ~5.2 km in diameter (Scherler et al., 2006) (Buchner and Kenkmann, 2008). The maximum extent of the listric faults that bound the structure defines a final crater diameter of at least 5 km (Kriens et al., 1999).
Rim Reliability Index
1-2
  1. Structurally there is a 3.6 km-diameter circular syncline surrounding a central uplifted area with a stratigraphic rise of ~250 m. The central uplift forms a depression that is ~1.4 km wide and 300 m deep (Buchner and Kenkmann, 2008).
Crater Morphology
Complex
Central Uplift Diameter
2.5km
Central Uplift Height
500 m
Uplift Reliability Index
2
Structural Uplift
250 m
Thickness of Seds
Target Age
Palaeozoic Mesozoic
Marine
No
Impactor Type
Other Shock Metamorphism
No
Shatter Cones
No
  1. Some debate as to authenticity. In places on the central uplift, thin beds of siltstone and very fine sandstone are pervasively cut by roughly planar fractures decorated with fan-tailed patterns of grooves and ridges that the authors refer to as "shatter surfaces" (Kriens et al., 1999). (Shoemaker et al., 1993) report "rare and weakly formed shatter cones in these beds". Sand grains from clastic dykes in the central peak of the crater are commonly crushed and appeared splintered, or "shattered" (Huntoon and Shoemaker, 1995).
Planar Fractures
Yes
  1. Thin sections from samples of clastic dykes of the White Rim Sandstone near the centre of Upheaval Dome show pla- nar microstructures in quartz grains (Figure 17; Kriens et al., 1999), most of which are Planar fractures some of which are decorated.
Planar Deformation Features
Yes
  1. PDF are rare in quartz grains (Shoemaker and Herkenhoff, 1984). See also (Kenkmann and Scherler, 2002). Decorated PDFs in quartz grains (Buchner and Kenkmann, 2008). Possible planar deformation features are present in some of the White Rim dyke samples (Kriens et al., 1999).
Diaplectic Glass
No
Coesite
No
  1. Did not find in literature.
Stisovite
No
  1. Did not find in literature.
Crater Fill
  1. Crater-fill impactites have been eroded. Clastic and lithic breccia dykes (Kenkmann et al., 2005 and references therein).
Proximal Ejecta
Distal Ejecta
Dykes
LB
Volume of Melt
Depth of Melting

References

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K Aki (1984) Asperities, barriers, characteristic earthquakes and strong motion prediction, Journal of Geophysical Research 89(B7), p. 5867-5872, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/JB089iB07p05867

E M Shoemaker, K E Herkenhoff (1984) Impact Origin of Upheaval Dome, Utah, p. 93, url

E M Shoemaker, K E Herkenhoff (1984) Upheaval Dome impact structure, Utah, Lunar and Planetary Science XV, p. 778-779, url

W Alvarez, E Staley, D O'Connor, M A Chan (1998) Synsedimentary deformation in the Jurassic of southeastern Utah; a case of impact shaking?, Geology (Boulder) 26(7), p. 579-582, Geological Society of America (GSA), Boulder, CO, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(1998)026<0579:SDITJO>2.3.CO;2

P Jousset, H Okada (1999) Post-eruptive volcanic dome evolution as revealed by deformation and microgravity observations at Usu Volcano (Hokkaido, Japan), Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 89(1-4), Setsuya Nakada, J C Eichelberger, Hiroshi Shimizu (ed.), p. 255-273, Elsevier, Amsterdam, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0377-0273(99)00003-7

B J Kriens, E M Shoemaker, K E Herkenhoff (1999) Geology of the Upheaval Dome impact structure, Southeast Utah, Journal of Geophysical Research 104(E8), p. 18,887, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/1998JE000587

P J Cannon (1999) The big basin impact craters of western Kansas, AAPG Bulletin 83(7), p. 1194, American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, OK, url

Z Kanbur, J N Louie, S Chavez-Perez, G Plank, D Morey (2000) Seismic reflection study of Upheaval Dome, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, Journal of Geophysical Research 105(E4), p. 9489-9505, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/1999JE001131

T Kenkmann, D Scherler (2002) New structural constraints on the Upheaval Dome impact crater, 33rd Annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, p. 1037, url

T Kenkmann (2003) Dike formation, cataclastic flow, and rock fluidization during impact cratering; an example from the Upheaval Dome structure, Utah, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 214(1-2), p. 43-58, Elsevier, Amsterdam, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0012-821X(03)00359-5

T Kenkmann, B A Ivanov (2003) The Upheaval Dome impact crater, Utah: Combining structural and numerical data to constrain age, diameter, and amount of erosion, Third International Conference on Large Meteorite Impacts, p. 4068, url

D Scherler, A Jahn, T Kenkmann (2003) Structural investigations in the central uplift of the upheaval dome impact crater, Utah, Third International Conference on Large Meteorite Impacts, p. 4072, url

K Smith (2004) The North Sea Silverpit Crater: impact structure or pull-apart basin?, Journal of the Geological Society of London 161(4), p. 593-602, Geological Society of London, London, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1144/0016-764903-140

T Kenkmann, A Jahn, D Scherler, B A Ivanov (2005) Structure and formation of a central uplift; a case study at the Upheaval Dome impact crater, Utah, Special Paper - Geological Society of America 384, Thomas Kenkmann, Friedrich P Hoerz, Alex Deutsch (ed.), p. 85-115, Geological Society of America (GSA), Boulder, CO

T Kenkmann, A Jahn, K Wünnemann (2006) ''Block Size'' in a complex impact crater Inferred from the Upheaval Dome structure, Utah, 37th Annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, p. 1540, url

D Scherler, T Kenkmann, A Jahn (2006) Structural record of an oblique impact, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 248(1-2), p. 43-53, Elsevier, Amsterdam, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2006.05.002

E Buchner, M Schmieder (2007) Mousso structure; a deeply eroded, medium-sized, complex impact crater in northern Chad?, Journal of African Earth Sciences 49(3), p. 71-78, Elsevier, Oxford, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2007.06.003

C H Okubo, R A Schultz (2007) Compactional deformation bands in Wingate Sandstone; additional evidence of an impact origin for Upheaval Dome, Utah, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 256(1-2), p. 169-181, Elsevier, Amsterdam, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2007.01.024

E Buchner, T Kenkmann (2008) Upheaval Dome, Utah, USA; impact origin confirmed, Geology (Boulder) 36(3), p. 227-230, Geological Society of America (GSA), Boulder, CO, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G24287A.1

W R O Key, R A Schultz (2011) Fault formation in porous sedimentary rocks at high strain rates; first results from the Upheaval Dome impact structure, Utah, USA, Geological Society of America Bulletin 123(5-6), p. 1161-1170, Geological Society of America (GSA), Boulder, CO, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B30087.1

H K M Tanaka, I Yokoyama (2013) Possible application of compact electronics for multilayer muon high-speed radiography to volcanic cones, Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems (GI) 2(2), p. 263-273, Copernicus Publications, Gottingen, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/gi-2-263-2013