Dellen - Hypervelocity Impact Crater

Alternate Names N/A
Coordinates 61° 51' 6" N; 16° 40' 38" E
Notes
  1. ~300 km NNW of Stockholm in E central Sweden.
Country Sweden
Region Gavleborgs
Date Confirmed 1968
Notes
  1. Confirmed by PDF's in quartz (Svensson, 1968).
Buried? No
Notes
  1. Lake and associated bottom sediments occupy the depression (Bylund, 1974).
Drilled? No
Notes
  1. Recently been proposed as a candidate for a deep drilling project, and as a potential platform for a deep rock laboratory (Henkel et al. 2010).
Target Type Crystalline
Notes
  1. Early Proterozoic gneissic granodiorites (Svensson, 1968). Porphyritic, often schistose, granite-granodiorite of the Ljusdal Batholith (Holm-Alwmark, 2021).
Sub-Type Gneiss
Apparent Crater Diameter (km) 19 km
Age (Ma) 140.82 ± 0.51
Notes :
  1. 140.82 ± 0.51 Ma determined by 40Ar/39Ar step-heating experiments on impact melt glass (Mark et al., 2013). Additional age constraints: Internal isochron Rb-Sr provides an age of 89.0 ± 2.7 Ma (Buhgl et al., 1990) (Deutsch et al., 1991) (Deutsch et al., 1992). 40Ar/39Ar age of 109.6 ± 1.0 Ma (Muller et al., 1990). 40Ar/39Ar age of 102 ± 1.6 Ma (Bottomley et al., 1990).

Method :
  1. 40Ar/39Ar
Impactor Type Unknown
Notes
  1. Low concentrations of Ni and Cr (Tagle et al., 2008), and "average" concentration of Ir (Schmidt et al, 1997) observed in melt rock.

Advanced Data Fields

Notes

Local Language
N/A
Erosion
6
  1. Only remnants of the crater-fill products remain; floor is partially exposed (Grieve, 1982).
Final Rim Diameter
Unknown
Apparent Rim Diameter
19 km
  1. (Henkel et al., 2010).
Rim Reliability Index
2
  1. The Dellen lakes occupy a rounded depression; very little morphologic expression remains (Bylund, 1974).
Crater Morphology
Complex
Central Uplift Diameter
Unknown
Central Uplift Height
Unknown
Uplift Reliability Index
Unknown
Structural Uplift
Unknown
Thickness of Seds
Unknown
Target Age
Precambrian
Marine
No
Impactor Type
Unknown
  1. Low concentrations of Ni and Cr (Tagle et al., 2008), and "average" concentration of Ir (Schmidt et al, 1997) observed in melt rock.
Other Shock Metamorphism
Planar features
  1. Planar elements in shocked quartz crystals (Deutsch et al., 1992). **see (Svensson, 1968). "The samples were selected from ballen quartz found in terrestrial impact craters; Dellen" (Okumura et al., 2008). The Lamellae are closely spaced (5 to 30 µ apart) and form parallel planar features which do not transgress grain bounderies (Svensson, 1968)."
Shatter Cones
No
  1. Possible shatter cones (Fig. 4B, page 88) (Rondot, 1975). Maybe shatter cones, see: Table. 1 (Henkel and Pesonen, 1992). Not enough evidence to conclude there are shatter cones following an accurate criterion (Baratoux, 2016)
Planar Fractures
No
  1. Did not find in literature.
Planar Deformation Features
Yes
  1. PDF in quartz grains (Svensson, 1968) (Carstens, 1975). (Lindström and von Dalwigk, 2002) report PDFs in quartz, lechatelierite, and isotropic biotite.
Diaplectic Glass
No
  1. Did not find in literature.
Coesite
No
  1. Did not find in literature.
Stisovite
No
  1. Did not find in literature.
Crater Fill
LB, MB, M
  1. Suevite, impact melt glass, impact melt breccia (Henkel, 2010) (Henkel, 1992). Melt sheet has a diameter of 9 km and a thickness of 500 m (Henkel, 1992). Pseudotachylite breccia veins in northern rim (Lindström and von Dalwigk, 2002). Impact melt rock has three overall types: a) cryptocrystalline matrix with variable inclusions/clasts, b) essentially clast-free melt (devitrified glass matrix), and c) clast-rich melt (e.g.: Lindström and von Dalwigk, 2002; Mäerz, 1979; Deutsch et al., 1992; Mark et al., 2014)
Proximal Ejecta
Unknown
Distal Ejecta
Unknown
Dykes
Unknown
Volume of Melt
Unknown
Depth of Melting
500 m

References

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N B Svensson (1968) The Dellen lakes, a probable meteorite impact in central Sweden, Geologiska Foreningens i Stockholm Forhandlingar 90, Part 2(533), p. 314-316, Geological Society of Sweden, Stockholm, url

U Maerz, D Stoeffler (1979) Crystallization of impact melt rocks from Scandinavian meteorite craters, Meteoritics 14(4), p. 480-481, Arizona State University, Center for Meteorite Studies, Tempe, AZ, url

D Stoeffler, U Maerz, W U Reimold (1979) Scandinavian impact structures; geology and petrology of impact formations, Meteoritics 14(4), p. 540, Arizona State University, Center for Meteorite Studies, Tempe, AZ, url

U Maerz (1979) Petrographisch-chemische untersuchungen von impaktschmelzen und breccien skandinavischer meteoritenkrater, p. 1-113

H Henkel (1990) The Lake Dellen impact crater, Sweden, Fennoscandian impact structures, L J Pesonen, H Niemisara (ed.), p. 47, Geol. Surv. Finl., Espoo, url

E U Engstrom, A Ekelund, S Rudberg (1990) Tuff breccia from the western part of the Dellen structure, Sweden, Fennoscandian impact structures, L J Pesonen, H Niemisara (ed.), p. 45, Geol. Surv. Finl., Espoo, url

N Muller, J B Hartung, E K Jessberger, W U Reimold (1990) AR-40-AR-39 AGES OF DELLEN, JANISJARVI, AND SAAKSJARVI IMPACT CRATERS, Meteoritics 25(1), p. 1-10

H Henkel, L J Pesonen (1992) Impact craters and craterform structures in Fennoscandia, Tectonophysics 216(1-2), L J Pesonen, H Henkel (ed.), p. 31-40, Elsevier, Amsterdam, url

A Deutsch, D Buhl, F Langenhorst (1992) On the significance of crater ages: new ages for Dellen (Sweden) and Araguainha (Brazil), Tectonophysics 216(1-2), doi:10.1016/0040-1951(92)90167-5

G Schmidt, H Palme, K-L Kratz (1997) Highly siderophile elements (Re, Os, Ir, Ru, Rh, Pd, Au) in impact melts from three European impact craters (Saaksjarvi, Mien, and Dellen); clues to the nature of the impacting bodies, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 61(14), p. 2977-2987, Pergamon, Oxford, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0016-7037(97)00129-4

M Linstrom, I von Dalwigk (2002) Geological guide to the Lockne and Dellen impact structure., Stockholm Contributions in Geology 47, p. 1-32

T Okumura, A Gucsik, H Nishido, K Ninagawa, M Schmieder, E Buchner (2008) Cathodoluminescence characterization of "ballen quartz" in impactites from terrestrial impact structures, Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America 40(6), p. 381, Geological Society of America (GSA), Boulder, CO, url

T Okumura, A Gucsik, H Nishido, K Ninagawa, M Schmieder, E Buchner (2008) Cathodoluminescence characterization of "ballen quartz" in impactites, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 43, Suppl., A J Timothy Jull (ed.), p. 1, Meteoritical Society, Fayetteville, AR, url

M Ivarsson, P Lindgren, A Neubeck, Curt Broman, N G Holm, H Henkel (2009) Filamentous structures in a hydrothermal system of the Dellen impact structure, Sweden; putative microfossils?, Abstracts of Papers Submitted to the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 40, p. Abstract 1260, Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston, TX, url

H Henkel, S Piazolo, A Woerman, L Jing (2010) A deep rock laboratory in the Dellen impact crater, GFF 132(1), p. 45-54, Geological Society of Sweden, Stockholm, url, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/11035890903469963

P Lindgren, M Ivarsson, A Neubeck, Curt Broman, H Henkel, N G Holm (2010) Putative fossil life in a hydrothermal system of the Dellen impact structure, Sweden, International Journal of Astrobiology 9(3), p. 137-146, doi:10.1017/s147355041000011x

P Lindgren, M Ivarsson, A Neubeck, Curt Broman, N Holm, P L Luisi, K Ruiz-Mirazo (2010) Preservation of fossil microorganisms in an impact-generated hydrothermal system?, Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere 40(4-5), p. 530, Springer, Dordrecht, url

D F Mark, P Lindgren, A E Fallick (2014) A high-precision 40Ar/39Ar age for hydrated impact glass from the Dellen impact, Sweden, Geological Society, London, Special Publications 378(1), doi:10.1144/SP378.22

G Giuli, S Nazzareni, H Skogby (2020) Dellen impact melt rock: pyroxenes as a proxy for the melt thermal history and water content, European Science Congress 2020, p. 1027