Wolfe Creek - Hypervelocity Impact Crater

Alternate Names
Local Language Kandimalal (Hamacher and Goldsmith, 2013).
Coordinates 19° 10' 18" S; 127° 47' 44" E
Notes
  1. On the northern edge of Australia's great interior desert, about 120 km W of Northern Territory-Western Australia boundary and 100 km S of Hall's Creek, the nearest town (McHone et al., 1995).
Country Australia
Region Western Australia
Date Confirmed 1968
Notes
  1. Confirmed by planar fractures found in a quartz grain (Short and Bunch, 1968). First suggested by (Reeves and Chalmers, 1948).
Buried? No
Notes
  1. Floor is covered with alluvium and aeolian drift, ~30 m deep (Fudali, 1979).
Drilled? No
Target Type Sedimentary
Notes
  1. A plain red clay with alluvium and aeolian drift, ~30 m deep (Fudali, 1979). Devonian.
Sub-Type Alluvium, Claystone, Quartzite, Sand
Apparent Crater Diameter (km) 800 m
Age (Ma) 0.120 ± 0.009
Notes :
  1. 0.120 ± 0.009 Ma determined by exposure dating using the cosmogenic nuclides 10Be and 26Al with optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages on sand from the impact site (Barrows et al., 2019). Additional age constraints: 300 000 years is terrestrial age of meteorite based on 36Cl-10Be dating (Shoemaker et al., 1990).

Method :
  1. Exposure dating
Impactor Type Iron, IIIAB, shale balls.
Notes
  1. (Wasson,1974) Meteorites recovered.

Advanced Data Fields

Notes

Erosion
2
  1. Ejecta is almost completely removed.
Final Rim Diameter
935 m
Apparent Rim Diameter
800 m
  1. Rim crest diameter is 825-935 m (ave. 880 m) and apparent diameter from ground level is 800 m (Shoemaker et al., 2005). Some dimensions based on geophysics (Fudali, 1979). See also (Grieve et al., 1989).
Rim Reliability Index
1
  1. Consists of a circular to slightly polygonal depression with a flat floor underlain by crater-fill products. Eolian deposits bank up against the SW rim (Fundali, 1979). Rim height is 35 m and depth of crater is 50 m (Shoemaker et al., 2005).
Crater Morphology
Simple
Central Uplift Diameter
km
Central Uplift Height
Unknown
Uplift Reliability Index
Structural Uplift
Unknown
Thickness of Seds
Target Age
Precambrian Palaeozoic
Marine
No
Impactor Type
Iron, IIIAB, shale balls.
  1. (Wasson,1974) Meteorites recovered.
Other Shock Metamorphism
No
Shatter Cones
No
  1. In-situ shatter cones are found on the south-southwest crater rim (O'Neill et al., 2005). (O'Neill et al., 2005) used the presence of shatter cones combined with Type of PF in quartz to estimate shock pressures. According to (McCall, 1965) (McCall, 2006) Wolfe Creek lacks various indicators of impact shock pressures such as shatter cones (Fig. 10a), lamellations in quartz, impactites, coesite and stishovite, and nano diamonds.
Planar Fractures
No
  1. Did not find in literature.
Planar Deformation Features
Yes
  1. Possible PDF in (Hawke, 2003). (O'Neill et al., 2005) used planar fractures in quartz found in massively bedded sandstone units inside the crater rim to estimate shock pressures. Fig. 22 (Short and Bunch, 1968) shows planar fractures in a quartz grain.
Diaplectic Glass
No
  1. Did not find in literature.
Coesite
No
  1. Coesite not present (McCall, 1965) (McCall, 2006).
Stisovite
No
Crater Fill
LB
  1. Fallback breccia. This fallback breccia and accompanying lithic target sandstone rock breccia units are inferred, via magnetic and gravity data and global comparisons rather than distinct field evidence, to be located in the crater-fill (Hawke, 2003) (O'Neill and Heine, 2005). Little to no evidence of melt.
Proximal Ejecta
Distal Ejecta
Dykes
Volume of Melt
Depth of Melting

References

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F C Leonard (1949) Is the crater of Wolf Creek, Western Australia (; 1278, 193), meteoritic?, Popular Astron. 57(3), p. 138-140, url

F Reeves, R O Chalmers (1949) The Wolf Creek crater, Australian Journal of Science 11(5), p. 154-156, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS), Sydney, N.S.W.

F C Leonard (1949) Further evidence concerning the Wolf Creek, Western Australia, crater, Popular Astronomy 57, p. 405, url

F C Leonard (1949) More about the Wolf Creek, Western Australia, crater, Popular Astronomy 57, p. 345-346

D J Guppy, R S Matheson (1950) Wolf Creek meteorite crater, Western Australia, Journal of Geology 58(1), p. 30-36, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, url

W A Cassidy (1954) The Wolf Creek, Western Australia, Meteorite Crater (CN=-1278,192), Meteoritcs 1(2), p. 197, url

L Lapaz (1954) Meteoritic Material from the Wolf Creek, Western Australia, Crater (CN=1278,192), Meteoritcs 1(2), p. 200, url

E L Krinov (1963) Meteorite craters on the Earth's surface, The Moon Meteorites and Comets, G.P. Kuiper, B.M Middlehurst (ed.), p. 183

R Jr Knox (1967) Surviving metal in meteoritic iron oxide from the Wolf Creek, Western Australia, meteorite crater, Meteoritcs 3(4), p. 235, url

A W Beasley (1970) Wolf Creek, Australia's largest meteorite crater, Victorian Naturalist 87(7), p. 189-191, Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, Melbourne

P B Robertson, R A F Grieve (1975) Impact structures in Canada - Their recognition and characteristics, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada 69(1), p. 1-21, url

R F Fudali (1979) Gravity investigation of Wolf Creek Crater, Western Australia, Journal of Geology 87(1), p. 55-67, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, url

E M Shoemaker, C S Shoemaker (1985) Impact structures of Western Australia, Meteoritics 20(4), Carleton B Moore (ed.), p. 754-756, Arizona State University, Center for Meteorite Studies, Tempe, AZ

E M Shoemaker, C S Shoemaker, W R Dickinson (1987) Meteorite craters of Western Australia, Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America 19(7), p. 842-843, Geological Society of America (GSA), Boulder, CO

R F Fudali (1987) Wolf Creek crater revisited, The Journal of Geology 95(1), p. 134-135, url, doi:10.1086/629112

E P Gurov, E P Gurova (1987) Impact structures on the Earth's surface (in Russian), Geologicheskii Zhurnal 47, p. 117-124

D J Roddy, E M Shoemaker, C S Shoemaker, J K Roddy (1988) Aerial photography and geologic studies of impact structures in Australia, Abstracts of the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 19, p. 990, url

B Lang, K Franaszczuk (1989) Fracture cascade at atmospheric entry; Canyon Diablo, Odessa, and Wolf Creek irons, Proceedings of the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 19, Graham Ryder, Virgil L Sharpton (ed.), p. 683-689, Pergamon, New York, NY, url

R A F Grieve (1990) Meteorite impact studies featured in Australia, Episodes 13(4), p. 281-282, International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), Ottawa, ON, url

M Attrep Jr, C J Orth, L R Quintana, C S Shoemaker, E M Shoemaker, S R Taylor, J M Boyce (1991) Chemical fractionation of siderophile elements in impactites from Australian meteorite craters, NASA Technical Memorandum 4300, p. 375-376, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Washington, DC, url

D G Blumberg, J F McHone, R Kuzmin, R Greeley (1995) Radar Imaging of impact craters by SIR-C/X-SAR, Lunar and Planetary Science Conference Proceedings, p. 139-140, url

Y Miura (1995) New shocked quartz with high density from Wolf Creek impact crater, Meteoritcs 30(5), p. 551, url

E Miller, G Miller, B Johnson, M L Fogel, J Magee, N Spooner, J Creasy, M Bryant (2002) Examination of surface features and mineralogy of quartz grains from Wolfe Creek Crater, Western Australia to determine provenance as an indicator of paleoclimate, Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America 34(1), p. 14, Geological Society of America (GSA), Boulder, CO

D W Hughes (2003) The approximate ratios between the diameters of terrestrial impact craters and the causative incident asteroids, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 338(4), p. 999-1003, url, doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06157.x

P J Hawke (2003) Geophysical investigation of the Wolfe Creek meteorite crater, Record - Geological Survey of Western Australia, p. 9, Geological Survey of Western Australia, Perth, West. Aust.

C Heine, C J O'Neill (2003) Reconstructing the shock wave from the Wolfe Creek meteorite impact, American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting Abstracts, p. A475, url

C O'Neill, C Heine, A Y Glikson, P W Haines (2005) Reconstructing the Wolfe Creek meteorite impact; deep structure of the crater and effects on target rock, Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 52(4-5), p. 699-709, Blackwell Scientific Publications for the Geological Society of Australia, Melbourne, Victoria, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08120090500170450

M J Wooller, B J Johnson, A Wilkie, M L Fogel (2005) Stable isotope characteristics across narrow savanna/woodland ecotones in Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater, Western Australia., Oecologia 145(1), p. 100-12, pubmed, doi:10.1007/s00442-005-0105-5

P W Haines (2005) Impact cratering and distal ejecta: the Australian record, Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 52(4-5), p. 481-507, url

G J H McCall (2006) Meteorite cratering; Hooke, Gilbert, Barringer and beyond, Geological Society Special Publications 256, G J H McCall, Alan J Bowden, Richard J Howarth (ed.), p. 443-469, Geological Society of London, London, url

M H Poelchau, T Kenkmann (2008) Asymmetric signatures in simple craters as an indicator for an oblique impact direction, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 43(12), Robert Herrick, Gordon R Osinski, Elisabetta Pierazzo (ed.), p. 2059-2072, Meteoritical Society, Fayetteville, AR, url

G J H McCall (2009) Half a century of progress in research on terrestrial impact structures; a review, Earth-Science Reviews 92(3-4), p. 99-116, Elsevier, Amsterdam, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2008.11.004

D W Hamacher (2009) Meteorite falls and cosmic impacts in Australian aboriginal mythology, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 44, SUPPL., p. 0-Abstract 5005, Meteoritical Society, Fayetteville, AR, url

S Hopper, R L Frost, W N Martens (2012) Kandimalal geomythology, the Wolfe Creek meteorite impact structure, International Geological Congress, Abstracts = Congres Geologique International, Resumes 34, p. 3782, [International Geological Congress], [location varies], pdf

T T Barrows, J Magee, G Miller, K Fifield (2019) The age of Wolfe Creek meteorite crater (Kandimalal), Western Australia, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 54(11), p. 2686-2697, University of Arkansas, doi:10.1111/maps.13378