Xiuyan - Hypervelocity Impact Crater

Alternate Names
Local Language
Coordinates 40° 21' 55" N; 123° 27' 35" E
Notes
  1. Northen part of Liaodong Peninsula in N. China.
Country China
Region Liaoning
Date Confirmed 2008
Notes
  1. Confirmed by a crater-fill breccia lens at center of the crater sometimes with melt-bearing polymict breccia, and varying amounts of quartz grains with PDFs (Chen, 2008).
Buried? No
Drilled? Yes
Notes
  1. 307 m hole in centre
Target Type Crystalline
Notes
  1. Proterozoic metasediments, amphibolite and gneiss.
Sub-Type Amphibolite, Gneiss, Metasedimentary
Apparent Crater Diameter (km) Unknown
Age (Ma) 0.05 - 5
Notes :
  1. Relatively young from state of erosion. Radiocarbon age of organic lacustrine sediments provides a minimum impact age since 50000 years is at the detection limit for this method (Chen et al., 2011) (Liu et al., 2013). *Maximum age is poorly constrained.

Method :
  1. 14C
Impactor Type Unknown

Advanced Data Fields

Notes

Erosion
4
  1. Crater-fill (breccia lens) preserved.
Final Rim Diameter
1.8 km
Apparent Rim Diameter
Unknown
  1. Bowl-shaped crater has a diameter of 1.8 km (Chen et al., 2008).
Rim Reliability Index
1
  1. Depth of crater from rim to bottom of crater ranges from 135 to 230 m, averaging to 150 m (Chen et al., 2008).
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
Other Shock Metamorphism
Reidite Maohokite
  1. Chen et al. 2013 Maohokite (a post-spinel polymorph of MgFe2O4) forms at impact pressures and termperatures 25-45Gpa and 800-900°C and is found in shocked gneiss at the Xiuyan crater (Chen et al., 2019)."
Shatter Cones
Yes
  1. Shatter cones found mainly in crater with some identified in deformed bedrock from rim of crater (Chen et al., 2008). Shatter cones in deformed bedrock from the rim of the crater (Chen, 2008).
Planar Fractures
Yes
  1. Radial fractures found along crater (Yue et al., 2014).
Planar Deformation Features
Yes
  1. PDFs in quartz ( <1µm thick lamellae spaced 2-5µm distance) found in fragmented bedrock collected from the inside of wall rim (Chen, 2008) (Chen et al., 2010). Up to five sets of PDFs found in quartz occuring in clasts of gneiss and granulite within suevite, predominately rhombohedron forms of {1012}, {1013} and {1011} (Chen, 2012). PDFs in quartz from the polymict breccias recovered from drill holes of the crater (Chen et al., 2010) (Chen et al., 2011).
Diaplectic Glass
Yes
  1. Diaplectic feldspar clasts was also identified in gneiss clasts containing quartz with multiple sets of PDFs (Chen, 2012). Quartz from shocked gneiss in impact breccias had been transformed into isotropic diaplectic glass that preserves the original textures of quartz crystals and and some traces of PDFs (Chen and Yin, 2012). Plagioclase rich in Ab was strongly deformed and partially transformed into diaplectic glass (Chen and Yin, 2012). Anorthite had been completely converted to diaplectic glass (Chen and Yin, 2012).
Coesite
Yes
  1. Coesite and quartz embedded in silica glass (Chen et al., 2010). Abundant coesite found in quartz glass in gneiss clasts of suevite (Chen, 2012). Coesite embedded in silica glass occuring as polycrystalline aggregates of stringers and irregular patches, as well as granular, needle-like and dendritic crystals (Chen, Xiao, and Xie, 2010) (Chen, 2012). Stringers of coesite are a predominate occurrence in our samples (Fig. 6a; Chen, Xiao, and Xie, 2010). The stringers are polycrystalline aggregates of coesite with lengths up to 600 μm and the width up to 50 μm (Chen, Xiao, and Xie, 2010).
Stisovite
Yes
  1. (Chen et al., 2010)
Crater Fill
LB, MB
  1. 188 m of polymict lithic breccias are observed. The lowest 35 m contain abundant melt-bearing breccias. The glass occurs as micrometer- to millimiter-sized fragments in the matrix or as irregular clasts up to 2 cm in size (Chen et al., 2011) (Chen, 2012). "Coesite commonly occurs as acicular or needle-shaped, dendritic, and spherulitic crystals" (Chen et al, 2013). "Melt-bearing impact breccias" (Yin and Chen, 2014). "The impact breccia unit is loosely consolidated and consists mainly of lithic impact breccias and some suevites" (Yin and Chen, 2014).
Proximal Ejecta
Distal Ejecta
Dykes
Volume of Melt
Depth of Melting

References

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G Qin, D Lu, Q Ou, X Chu (2001) The discovery of PGE anomaly and platina from Luoquanli impact crater, China, Dixue Qianyuan = Earth Science Frontiers 8(2), p. 333-338, Zhonggno Dizhi Daxue, Beijing

S M Zhao (2004) The discovery of a meteorite impact crater in Xiuyan County of central Liaodong Peninsula(in chinese), Remote Sens Land Resour 3, p. 27

M Chen (2008) Impact-derived features of the Xiuyan meteorite crater, Chinese Science Bulletin 53(3), p. 392-395, url, doi:10.1007/s11434-008-0004-3

M Chen, W Xiao, X Xie (2010) Coesite and quartz characteristic of crystallization from shock-produced silica melt in the Xiuyan Crater, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 297(1-2), p. 306-314, Elsevier, Amsterdam, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2010.06.032

J Fan, M Liu, C Zhao, Y Hai, H Xin (2010) Three-dimensional Q tomography for Xiuyan meteorite impact crater, Chinese Journal of Geophysics-Chinese Edition 53(10), p. 2367-2375, url, doi:10.3969/j.issn.0001-5733.2010.10.010

M Chen, W Xiao, D Tan, Y Cao (2010) Xiuyan Crater, China: Impact origin confirmed, Chinese Science Bulletin 55(17), p. 1777-1781, url

C Zhao, M Liu, J Fan, J Ji, X Guo, C Li, L Yang (2011) High-resolution seismic exploration of Xiuyan impact crater structures, Chinese Journal of Geophysics-Chinese Edition 54(6), p. 1559-1565, url

M Chen, C Koeberl, W Xiao, X Xie, D Tan (2011) Planar deformation features in quartz from impact-produced polymict breccia of the Xiuyan Crater, China, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 46(5), p. 729-736, Meteoritical Society, Fayetteville, AR, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1945-5100.2011.01186.x

W Xiao, M Chen, X Xie (2011) Shock-produced coesite in the Xiuyan Crater, China, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 46, p. A256

M Chen (2012) Xiuyan impact crater, China, Abstracts of Papers Submitted to the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 43, p. 0-Abstract 1003, Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston, TX

M Chen, F Yin (2012) Diaplectic glasses of quartz and plagioclase feldspar in impact breccias from the Xiuyan Crater, China, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 47, p. A99, pdf

K X Liu, M Chen, X F Ding, D P Fu, P Ding, C D Shen, W S Xiao (2013) AMS radiocarbon dating of lacustrine sediment from an impact crater in northeastern China, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 294, p. 593-596, url, doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2012.08.043

X Wang, Lei Luo, H Guo, L Mu, C Li, W Ji, H Cai (2013) Cratering process and morphological features of the Xiuyan impact crater in Northeast China, Science China Earth Sciences 56(10), p. 1629-1638, url, doi:10.1007/s11430-013-4695-1

M Chen, F Yin, X Li, X Xie, W Xiao, D Tan (2013) Natural occurrence of reidite in the Xiuyan Crater of China, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 48(5), p. 796-805, Meteoritical Society, Fayetteville, AR, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/maps.12106

M Chen, X Gu, X Xie, F Yin (2013) High-pressure polymorph of TiO2-II from the Xiuyan crater of China, Chinese Science Bulletin 58(36), p. 4655-4662, url, doi:10.1007/s11434-013-6084-8

M Chen, J Shu, X Xie, D Tan (2019) Maohokite, a post-spinel polymorph of MgFe 2 O 4 in shocked gneiss from the Xiuyan crater in China, Meteoritics and Planetary Science 54(3), p. 495-502, University of Arkansas, doi:10.1111/maps.13222

F Yin, T G Sharp, M Chen (2021) Nanotextures and formation process of coesite in silica glass from the Xiuyan impact crater, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 56(6), p. 1212-1223, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, url, doi:10.1111/MAPS.13702