Pilbara - Hypervelocity Impact Crater

Alternate Names
Local Language
Coordinates 21° 6' 17" S; 119° 23' 49" E
Notes
  1. Centered at the North Pole Dome in the East Pilbara Terrane
Country Australia
Region Western Australia - Pilbara Craton
Date Confirmed 2021
Notes
  1. Confirmed based on shatter cones found during fieldwork throughout most of the thickness of the Antarctic Creek Member in the area around the North Pole Dome (Kirkland et al. 2025).
Buried? Partially
Notes
  1. Shocked rocks are overlain by unshocked carbonate breccias and pillow lavas. Exposed shatter cones observed at the North Pole Dome (Kirkland et al. 2025)
Drilled? No
Target Type Mixed
Notes
  1. The target rock consists of ultramafic to mafic volcanic rocks (Warrawoona Group, 10–15 km thick) with felsic volcaniclastic rocks and chert, showing weak metamorphism and hydrothermal alteration. In the North Pole Dome, the 2–3 km thick Mount Ada Basalt includes a 20 m sedimentary unit (Antarctic Creek Member) of silicified and carbonate-altered volcaniclastic rocks, chert, and jaspilite, with dolerite intrusions. (Kirkland et al. 2025)
Sub-Type Argillite, Basalt, Carbonate, Chert, Clasticsediments, Dolerite, Metasedimentary, Volcanics
Apparent Crater Diameter (km) >100
Age (Ma) 3470 ± 2
Notes :
  1. Stratigraphically 3469.2 +1.8/-1.2 Ma based on underlying felsic rocks aged 3469 ± 3 Ma and overlying felsic volcanic rocks aged 3468 ± 2 Ma. Not dated directly, but contains detrital zircon grains with 207Pb/206Pb ages of 3470 ± 2 Ma. (Kirkland et al. 2025)

Method :
  1. Stratigraphy / Geochronology
Impactor Type Unknown

Advanced Data Fields

Notes

Erosion
6
  1. Crater shape is heavily eroded and possibly reworked from later impacts, however, shatter cones are exceptionally well persevered (Kirkland et al. 2025).
Final Rim Diameter
Unknown
Apparent Rim Diameter
>100
  1. Speculation based on assumed central uplift and apparent spatial distribution of shatter cones (Kirkland et al. 2025)
Rim Reliability Index
1
  1. The Antarctic Creek Member dips away from the core of the North Pole Dome which is interpreted to represent the central uplift of a large impact crater and its fill (Kirkland et al. 2025).
Crater Morphology
Complex
Central Uplift Diameter
40-45km
Central Uplift Height
Unknown
Uplift Reliability Index
1
Structural Uplift
Unknown
Thickness of Seds
Target Age
Marine
No
Impactor Type
Other Shock Metamorphism
One or more Spherule containing Layers
  1. The ACM contains one or more layers containing spherules, as well as higher stratigraphic levels implying another large distal impact ~10 million years after North Pole impact (Kirkland et al. 2025).
Shatter Cones
Yes
  1. Exceptionally well preserved shatter cones crop out continuously for at least several hundred meters. Some several meters tall, the shatter cones are smooth with divergent and branching ribs. Individual cone axis varies but almost all are steeply inclines and splay downwards. (Kirkland et al. 2025)
Planar Fractures
No
Planar Deformation Features
No
Diaplectic Glass
No
Coesite
No
Stisovite
No
Crater Fill
Proximal Ejecta
Distal Ejecta
Dykes
Volume of Melt
Depth of Melting

References

Spot a missing reference? Submit Reference

Christopher L Kirkland, Tim E Johnson, Jonas Kaempf, Bruno V Ribeiro, Andreas Zametzer, R Hugh Smithies, Brad McDonald (2025) A Paleoarchaean impact crater in the Pilbara Craton, Western Australia, Nature Communications 16(1), p. 2224, url, doi:10.1038/s41467-025-57558-3