Dhala - Hypervelocity Impact Crater

Alternate Names Mohar (Roy et al., 2017).
Local Language
Coordinates 25° 17' 59" N; 78° 8' 35" E
Notes
  1. Located in Central India in the NW part of the Archean Bundelkhand craton, ~400 km SSE of New Delhi.
Country India
Region Madhya Pradesh
Date Confirmed 2005
Notes
  1. Confirmed by the presence of PDFs in quartz and extensive breccia (Pati, 2005).
Buried? No
Drilled? Yes
Notes
  1. Drilling was conducted after preliminary indications that radioactive minerals had been reported (Pati et al., 2008).
Target Type Mixed
Notes
  1. The Dhala structure is in the Bundelkhand shield which consists of supracrustal gneisses, metapelites, amphibolites, metasedimentary rocks, marble, calc-silicate rocks, and quartzites. There are also several phases of felsic intrusive rocks, felsic volcanic rocks, giant quartz veins, and mafic intrusive rocks. Sandy siltstone, siltstone with conglomerate lenses, shale-sandstone, bedded ash, and laterite occur on top of the central hill which is partly covered by Quaternary alluvium (Pati et al., 2008).
Sub-Type Amphibolite, Gneiss, Marble, Metasedimentary, Quartzite
Apparent Crater Diameter (km) 11 km
Age (Ma) 1700 - 2500
Notes :
  1. Target rock is ~2.5 Ga and structure is overlain by 1.7 Ga sediments (Pati et al., 2008).

Method :
  1. Stratigraphy
Impactor Type Unknown

Advanced Data Fields

Notes

Erosion
5
  1. Deeply eroded (Pati et al., 2008).
Final Rim Diameter
Unknown
Apparent Rim Diameter
11 km
  1. Diameter of the near-circular structure is 11 km based on mapped distribution of monomict impact breccia (Pati et al., 2008).
Rim Reliability Index
2
  1. Has a circular mesa-like structure at the centre referred to as the Central Eleveated Area (CEA) approximately 4.5 km in diameter and 100 m high (Roy et al., 2017). This uplifted area may be related to the impact event as it is associated with breccia and folding (Pati et al., 2008) (Roy et al., 2017).
Crater Morphology
Complex
Central Uplift Diameter
4.5km
Central Uplift Height
Unknown
Uplift Reliability Index
3
Structural Uplift
Unknown
Thickness of Seds
Target Age
Precambrian
Marine
No
Impactor Type
Other Shock Metamorphism
Ballen quartz Checkerboard-textured feldspar Feather features
  1. Ballen quartz is common in nearly all impact melt breccia samples studied (Pati et al., 2008). Checkerboard-textured feldspar is common in melt breccia (Pati et al., 2008). Feather features were identified in quartz grains from drill core samples. This is the first report of FFs at Dhala (Pati et al., 2019)."
Shatter Cones
Yes
  1. One shatter cone of granitic composition was found in a clast within a monomict breccia sample ~3.7 km NE of the central elevated area. This is first report of shatter cone evidence at Dhala (Pati et al., 2019).
Planar Fractures
No
Planar Deformation Features
Yes
  1. PDFs found in quartz and feldspar grains (Pati et al., 2008). Single and multiple sets are observed, with 2 sets being the most common and up to 4 sets have been found in a single grain. Most PDFs are decorated (Pati et al., 2019).
Diaplectic Glass
Yes
  1. Recrystallized quartz clasts are presumably annealed silica melt from diaplectic glass or lechatalierite (Pati et al., 2008).
Coesite
No
Stisovite
No
Crater Fill
LB, MB, M, S
  1. Monomict granitoid breccia from the central elevated area and scattered outcrops of impact melt breccia exposed towards the inner edge of the monomict breccia zone have been identified within the structure (Pati et al., 2008). One armoured lapilli (lapillus - singular?) and one ovoid silica spherule were identified within impact melt-bearing breccias (Pati et al., 2019).
Proximal Ejecta
Distal Ejecta
Dykes
Volume of Melt
Depth of Melting

References

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J K Pati (2005) The Dhala Structure, Bundelkhand Craton, central India; a new large Paleoproterozoic impact structure, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 40, Suppl., p. 1, Meteoritical Society, Fayetteville, AR, url

J K Pati, M Nadeem, R Kundu, R Bhusan, W U Reimold (2006) Monomict impact breccia from Dhala structure, Archean Bundelkhand Craton, central India; macro- and mesoscopic impact-induced deformation, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 41, Supple, p. 1, Meteoritical Society, Fayetteville, AR, url

J K Pati, V Srivastava, A C Shukla, Wolf Uwe Reimold, Christian Koeberl (2007) Impact-melt breccia from Dhala impact structure, Bundelkhand Craton, central India, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 42, Supple, p. 1, Meteoritical Society, Fayetteville, AR, url

J K Pati, W U Reimold, C Koeberl, P Pati (2008) The Dhala Structure, Bundelkhand Craton, central India; eroded remnant of a large Paleoproterozoic impact structure, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 43(8), p. 1383-1398, Meteoritical Society, Fayetteville, AR, url

F Jourdan, Richard A Armstrong, W U Reimold, J K Pati, P Renne, C Koeberl (2008) Elusive age of the Paleoproterozoic Dhala impact structure, India; first SHRIMP U-Pb and (super 40) Ar/ (super 39) Ar chronological results, Abstracts of Papers Submitted to the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 39, p. Abstract 1244, Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston, TX, url

J K Pati, K Prakash, R Kundu (2009) Terrestrial impact structures and their confirmation; example from Dhala Structure, central India, Earth Science India 2(4), p. 289-298, Society of Earth Scientists, Lucknow, url

J K Pati, W U Reimold, P Pati, R K Umrao, M Ahmad (2009) Pseudotachylite breccia veins in basement granitoids of the Dhala impact structure, Bundelkhand Craton, India, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 44, SUPPL., p. Abstract 5187, Meteoritical Society, Fayetteville, AR, url

Jayanta Kumar Pati, Fred Jourdan, Richard A Armstrong, Wolf Uwe Reimold, Kuldeep Prakash (2010) First SHRIMP U-Pb and (super 40) Ar/ (super 39) Ar chronological results from impact melt breccia from the Paleoproterozoic Dhala impact structure, India, Special Paper - Geological Society of America 465, Roger L Gibson, Wolf Uwe Reimold (ed.), p. 571-591, Geological Society of America (GSA), Boulder, CO, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/2010.2465(27

J K Pati (2011) First report of suevite from Dhala impact structure, India, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 46, SUPPL., p. 1, Meteoritical Society, Fayetteville, AR, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1945-5100.2011.01241.x

Y Kuriyama, N Nakamura, J Muto, T Nagase, J K Pati (2011) "Ballen quartz" from the Dhala impact structure and its crystal orientation pattern by electron back scattered diffraction (EBSD), Abstracts of Papers Submitted to the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 42, p. 1657, Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston, TX, url

M Roy, S Kumar, P Pandey, C L Bhairam, P S Parihar (2014) Petrological Evidences of Impact-induced Shock Metamorphism in the Basement Granitoids and Rhyolitic Melt Breccia of Mohar Area, Shivpuri District, Madhya Pradesh, Journal of the Geological Society of India 84(4), p. 377-384, doi:10.1007/s12594-014-0143-x

J K Pati, W U Reimold, A Greshake, R T Schmitt, C Koeberl, P Pati, K Prakash (2015) Pseudotachylitic breccia from the Dhala impact structure, north-central India: Texture, mineralogy and geochemical characterization, Tectonophysics 649, p. 18-32, doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2015.01.021

J K Pati, W J Qu, C Koeberl, W U Reimold, M Chakarvorty, R T Schmitt (2017) Geochemical evidence of an extraterrestrial component in impact melt breccia from the Paleoproterozoic Dhala impact structure, India, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 52(4), p. 722-736, University of Arkansas, doi:10.1111/maps.12826

M Roy, P Pandey, S Kumar, P S Parihar (2017) Mineral shock signatures in rocks from Dhala (Mohar) impact structure, Shivpuri District, Madhya Pradesh, India, Journal of Earth System Science 126(8), p. 1-13, Indian Academy of Sciences, doi:10.1007/s12040-017-0898-8

S-S Li, S Keerthy, M Santosh, S P Singh, C D Deering, M Satyanarayanan, M N Praveen, V Aneeshkumar, G K Indu, Y Anilkumar, K S Sajinkumar (2018) Anatomy of impactites and shocked zircon grains from Dhala reveals Paleoproterozoic meteorite impact in the Archean basement rocks of Central India, Gondwana Research 54, p. 81-101, Elsevier Inc., doi:10.1016/j.gr.2017.10.006

J K Pati, M H Poelchau, W U Reimold, N Nakamura, Y Kuriyama, A K Singh (2019) Documentation of shock features in impactites from the Dhala impact structure, India, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 54(10), p. 2312-2333, University of Arkansas, doi:10.1111/maps.13369

A Dutta, D Raychaudhuri, A Bhattacharya, A Bhattacharya (2020) Zircon morphology from the impact breccia fo Dhala crater, India, 51st Lunar & Planetary Sciences Conference, p. 1907, pdf

A Dutta, K K Sinha, D Raychaudhuri, M Roy, A Bhattacharya, A Bhattacharya, S Murmu (2021) Petrographic Characterization of Impactites from Dhala Crater, India, 52nd Lunar & Planetary Conference, p. 1865, url

A. Anand, A. K. Singh, K. Mezger, J. K. Pati (2023) Chromium isotopes identify the extraterrestrial component in impactites from Dhala impact structure, India, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 58(5), p. 722-736

Gaurav Joshi, Pradyut Phukon, Amar Agarwal, Arun Kumar Ojha (2023) On the Emplacement of the Impact Melt at the Dhala Impact Structure, India, Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets 128(7), John Wiley and Sons Inc, doi:10.1029/2023JE007840

Sonal Tiwari, Gaurav Joshi, Pradyut Phukon, Amar Agarwal, Mamilla Venkateshwarlu (2025) Emplacement of monomict breccia and crater size estimate at the Dhala impact structure, India, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 60(3), p. 663-679, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, url, doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.14323