Odessa - Impact Crater

Alternate Names
Local Language
Coordinates 31° 45' 22" N; 102° 28' 45" W
Notes
  1. This structure, along with 4 smaller meteorite pits, are located in the very arid western region of Texas, near the town of Odessa, in Ector Country.
Country United States of America
Region Texas
Date Confirmed 1928
Notes
  1. First noted in a conference abstract (Sellards, 1927) that recorded the presence of meteoritic fragments, but with the conclusion \"between thse several hypotheses no conclusive choice can be made at present\". Confirmed the following year (Barringer, 1928).
Buried? No
Notes
  1. Recent deposits of silt and sand fill the upper portions of the crater and the pits (Krinov, 1966).
Drilled? Yes
Notes
  1. More than 80 closely spaced drill holes were sunk in all parts of the crater. A two-compartment shaft was sunk to 50 m in the central part, penetrating the sediment cover, breccia and country rock (Evans, 1961).
Target Type Sedimentary
Notes
  1. The main crater is formed in Cretaceous sandstones, limestones an shales covered by 0.025 km of Tertiary calcareous sands and clays (Evans, 1961).
Sub-Type Claystone, Limestone, Sand, Sandstone, Shale
Apparent Crater Diameter (km) 168 m
Age (Ma) <0.05
Notes :
  1. (Evans, 1961) and others believe the craters were formed less than 50,000 years ago, due to the extent of erosion. *Minimum age is poorly constrained.

Method :
  1. Stratigraphy
Impactor Type Iron, IAB
Notes
  1. Hundreds of tiny fragments of meteorite iron (Odessa octahedrite, IA type) were collected on the surface of the crater wall and in the meteorite pits (Krinov, 1966). [Note: Group is IAB not IA since group classifications were revised after initial classification.] Meteorites recovered.

Advanced Data Fields

Notes

Erosion
3
  1. Subjected to some denudation, although some of the rim and most crater-fill products have been preserved (Krinov, 1966).
Final Rim Diameter
168 m
Maximum Crater Size
168 m
Number of Craters
5
Rim Reliability Index
1
  1. 5 craters in field. Main crater is ~160 m and is surrounded by 4 smaller craters that vary from 5 to 20 m in diameter (Littlefield et al., 2007). Dimensions for craters are 168 m (No. 1) (Monnig and Brown, 1935), ~21 m (No.2) (Sellards and Evans, 1941), **(No. 3), **(No. 4), **(No. 5). [** yet to find specific reference for dimensions of these craters other than they are between 5 and 20 m]. Dimensions for the main crater (Krinov, 1966). See also (Holliday et al., 2005).
Thickness of Seds
0.025km
Target Age
Mesozoic Cenozoic
Marine
No

References

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Daniel Moreau Barringer Jr (1929) A new meteor crater [near Odessa, Ector County, Texas], Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 80, p. 307-311, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, url

O E Monning, R Brown (1935) The Odessa, Texas, Meteorite Crater, Contributions of the Society for Research on Meteorites 1(1), p. 1-4

E H Sellards, G Evans (1941) Statement of progress of investigation at Odessa meteor craters, Bureau of Economic Geology 13, p. -

G F Herzog, M E Lipschutz, A V Jain, T E Rodman (1976) Noble gases and shock effects in the Odessa octahedrite, Journal of Geophysical Research 81(20), p. 3583-3586, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/JB081i020p03583

T R Smith, P W Hodge (1997) Discovery of impactite at the Odessa meteorite crater, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 32, Suppl., Derek W G Sears (ed.), p. 122, Meteoritical Society, Fayetteville, AR, url

G Evans, C E Mear (2000) The Odessa meteor craters and their geological implications, Occasional Papers of the Strecker Museum 5, p. 50, Baylor University, Waco, TX, url

V T Holliday, D A Kring, J H Mayer, R J Goble (2005) Age and effects of the Odessa meteorite impact, western Texas, USA, Geology 33(12), p. 945-948, doi:10.1130/G21884.1

S McGary, D Soule, M E Everett (2006) Constraints on formation, structure, and environmental effects of the Odessa (TX) meteorite impact based on a near-surface applied geophysical investigation, AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 41, p. 1130, url

D L Littlefield, P T Bauman, A Molineux (2007) Analysis of formation of the Odessa crater, International Journal of Impact Engineering 34(12), p. 1953-1961, doi:10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2006.12.005

D Soule, M E Everett (2007) High resolution seismic imaging at the Odessa (TX) meteorite impact site the ground-impact geohazard and integration with magnetic gradiometry and time-domain electromagnetics, AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, url

M Hickey, M E Everett (2008) Imaging Subsurface Crater Deformation Using Controlled-source Electromagnetics-Experinmental Design Guidelines with Applications to the Odessa TX Impact, AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts

A Robinson, D Soule, M E Everett, T Rodman, M Mangue Ndong, A Pereira, P Platt, A Trahan (2008) 3D characterization of the magnetic signature of a medium sized impact crater at Odessa, TX, Publication: American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #NS13A-1076, url

C E Stanford (2017) Structural investigation of the Odessa meteorite crater using high resolution geophysics in a complex environment, p. 95