Roter Kamm - Hypervelocity Impact Crater

Alternate Names
Local Language
Coordinates 27° 45' 59" S; 16° 17' 20" E
Notes
  1. ~80 km due N of Oranjemund in the Namib desert.
Country Namibia
Region Karas
Date Confirmed 1989
Notes
  1. (Miller and Reimold, 1986) report pseudotachylite, breccias and "major joint orientations that are radial to the crater center." However the first reports of PDF's are in (Reimold and Miller, 1989).
Buried? No
Notes
  1. Rim is exposed, but the depression is now filled by about 300 m of desert sands (Miller and Reimold, 1986) (Reimold and Miller, 1989). (Miller and Reimold, 1986) are cited as providing the first evidence for shock metamorphism, but the paper is an old abstract and their table is really difficult to read - it's possible that this date could be adjusted to later reports that include PDF's (Reimold et al., 1989).
Drilled? No
Target Type Mixed
Notes
  1. The Proterozoic basement rocks are comprised of orthogneisses intruded by abundant pegmatites and overlain by marble, schist and sandstone, also of Proterozoic age (Reimold et al., 1988) (Reimold and Miller, 1989). A thin intermittent veneer of Tertiary to Recent semi consolidated and unconsolidated dune sands of the Namib Desert covered the target area (Degenhardt et al., 1996).
Sub-Type Carbonate, Gneiss, Pegmatite, Sandstone, Schist
Apparent Crater Diameter (km) 2.5 km
Age (Ma) 3.8 ± 0.3
Notes :
  1. Single age on melt sample provided age of 3.7 ± 0.3 Ma; recalculation of this age yielded 3.8 ±0.3 Ma (Koeberl et al., 1993) (Hecht et al., 2008). Regional geology suggests 5-10 Ma. Age bracketing was attempted by (Koeberl et al., 1993), using K-Ar, Rb-Sr, fission track and Be-Al, though most systems were not completely reset or represent an uplift event closer to 20 Ma. Also see (Hartung et al., 1991).

Method :
  1. 40Ar/39Ar
Impactor Type Unknown
Notes
  1. No meteoritic material has been found by geochemical studies on the melt ejecta. This could indicate an achondrite composition for the projectile (Reimold et al., 1988) (Reimold and Miller 1989).

Advanced Data Fields

Notes

Erosion
2
Final Rim Diameter
Unknown
Apparent Rim Diameter
2.5 km
  1. Depths based on geophysics (Fudali, 1973) (Reimold et al., 1988).
Rim Reliability Index
1
  1. Nearly circular, ~2.5 km in diameter and consists of a rim rising up to 150 m above the surrounding terrain and a crater interior filled by desert sands (Reimold et al., 1988) (Reimold and Miller, 1989).
Crater Morphology
Simple
Central Uplift Diameter
km
Central Uplift Height
Unknown
Uplift Reliability Index
Structural Uplift
Unknown
Thickness of Seds
Target Age
Precambrian
Marine
No
Impactor Type
  1. No meteoritic material has been found by geochemical studies on the melt ejecta. This could indicate an achondrite composition for the projectile (Reimold et al., 1988) (Reimold and Miller 1989).
Other Shock Metamorphism
No
Shatter Cones
No
  1. Shatter cones not reported.
Planar Fractures
No
Planar Deformation Features
Yes
  1. PDF in one quartz fragment (Reimold et al., 1994).
Diaplectic Glass
No
Coesite
No
Stisovite
No
Crater Fill
MB, M
  1. Glassy-looking rocks from the northwest rim were classified as pesudotachylite (Reimold and Miller, 1989), but were revealed to be monomict lithic breccias by (Degenhardt et al., 1996). An in situ occurrence of melt rock in the southwestern portion of the crater rim was observed by (Hecht et al., 2008). They can be clast-poor and clast-rich and have a glassy matrix. Melt-bearing breccias (referred to as suevites) were reported by (Reimold et al., 1997) in the western part of the crater rim. Pseudotachylite identified (Degenhardt et al., 1992). (Reimold et al., 1997)
Proximal Ejecta
LB
Distal Ejecta
Dykes
Volume of Melt
Depth of Melting

References

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Robert S Dietz (1965) Addendum to the paper on Roter Kamm, by Robert S. Dietz, meteoritics, Meteoritcs 2, p. 311

Robert S Dietz (1965) Roter Kamm, Southwest Africa: Probable meteorite crater, Meteoritics 2, p. 311

R F Fudali (1973) Roter Kamm: Evidence for and impact origin, Meteoritics 8(3)

U Reimold, R Miller (1986) Deformation and shock deformation in rocks from the Roter Kamm crater SWA/Namibia, 49th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society.

C Koeberl, K Fredriksson, M Götzinger, W U Reimold (1989) Anomalous quartz from the roter kamm impact crater, Namibia: Evidence for post-impact hydrothermal activity?, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 53(8), p. 2113-2118, doi:10.1016/0016-7037(89)90329-3

W U Reimold, R M Miller, R A F Grieve, C Koeberl (1989) The Roter Kamm crater structure in SWA/Namibia, 19th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference

C Koeberl, W U Reimold, M Götzinger, K Fredriksson (1990) Quartz at the Roter Kamm crater and post-impact hydrothermal activity: A reply to E. Roedder, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 54(11), p. 3249-3251, doi:10.1016/0016-7037(90)90142-8

D Storzer, C Koeberl, W U Reimold (1990) Age of Roter Kamm impact crater, Namibia: A discussion based on fission track and isotopic measurements, Meteoritics

E Roedder (1990) A discussion of 'Anomalous quartz from the Roter Kamm impact crater, Namibia - Evidence for post-impact hydrothermal activity?', Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 54, p. 3247-3248, doi:10.1016/0016-7037(90)90141-7

J B Hartung, M J Kunk, W U Reimold, R M Miller, R A F Grieve (1991) Roter Kamm crater age: 3.5 to 4.0 Ma, Meteoritics 26, p. 342-343, url

J J Degenhardt Jr, Paul C Buchanan, A M Reid (1992) Impactite and pseudotachylite from Roter Kamm crater, Namibia, Lunar and Planetary Science Conference

C Koeberl, J Klein, J Matsuda, K Nagao, W U Reimold, D Storzer (1992) Roter Kamm impact crater, namibia: Age constraints from K-Ar, Rb-Sr, fission track and 10-26Al, Meteoritics

R A F Grieve (1993) Recent studies at the Roter Kamm impact crater, Meteoritics 28(2), p. 160

W U Reimold, C Koeberl, J Bishop (1994) Roter Kamm impact crater, Namibia - Geochemistry of basement rocks and breccias, Geochimica et Cosmochimica ACTA 58(12), p. 2689-2710, THE BOULEVARD, LANGFORD LANE, KIDLINGTON, OXFORD, ENGLAND OX5 1GB: PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, doi:10.1016/0016-7037(94)90138-4

J J Degenhardt Jr, A M Reid, Paul C Buchanan, R M Miller (1995) 'Melt' breccias from Roter Kamm impact crater, Namibia, Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 26

D Brandt, W U Reimold, L Wendorf, C Koeberl, J Grant (1996) Geophysical signatures of the Roter Kamm impact crater, Namibia, Abstracts of Papers Submitted to the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 27 Part 1, p. 153-154

J A Grant, C Koeberl, P H Schultz, D Brandt, A J Franzsen (1996) The degradation history of the Roter Kamm impact crater, Namibia, Lunar and Planetary Science Conference XXVII 27

J A Grant, C Koeberl, W U Reimold, P H Schultz (1997) Gradation of the Roter Kamm impact crater, Namibia, Journal of Geophysical Research 102(E7), p. 16,338, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/97JE01315

D Rajmon, P Copeland, A M Reid, J F Lavigne (1998) Temperature of formation of pseudotachylytic impact breccias, Roter Kamm crater, SW Nambia, 62nd Annual Meteoritical Society Meeting(1991), p. 77204

D Rajmon, P Copeland, A M Reid (2002) "Pseudotachylytes" that never melted: A thermal story from Roter Kamm crater, Namibia, Lunar and Planetary Science XXXIII

J F Mchone, R Greeley, K K Williams, D G Blumberg, R O Kuzmin (2002) Space shuttle observations of terrestrial impact structures using SIR-C and X-SAR radars, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 37(3), p. 407-420, url, doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.2002.tb00824.x

D Rajmon, P Copeland, A.M. Reid (2002) "Pseudotachylytes" That Never Melted: A Thermal Story from Roter Kamm Crater, Namibia, Lunar and Planetary Science XXXIII

D Rajmon, S A Hall, A M Reid, R M Miller (2004) Magnetic investigations of breccia veins and basement rocks from Roter Kamm crater and surrounding region, Namibia, Lunar and Planetary Science XXXV, p. 3-4

David Rajmon, Peter Copeland, Arch M. Reid (2005) Argon isotopic analysis of breccia veins from the Roter Kamm crater, Namibia, and implications for their thermal history, Meteoritics and Planetary Science 40(6), doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.2005.tb00158.x

Roy Mc G. Miller (2010) Roter Kamm impact crater of Namibia: New data on rim structure, target rock geochemistry, ejecta, and meteorite trajectory, Special Paper of the Geological Society of America 465, doi:10.1130/2010.2465(24)