Boxhole crater

Boxhole crater
Boxhole meteorite crater, July 2011
Boxhole crater is located in Northern Territory
Boxhole crater
Location within Northern Territory
Location
Impact crater structure
ConfidenceConfirmed
Diameter170 m (560 ft)
Age5.4 ± 1.5 ka
Holocene
ExposedYes
DrilledNo

Boxhole is a young impact crater located approximately 180 km (265 km by road) north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is 170 metres in diameter and its age is estimated to be 5,400 ± 1,500 years based on the cosmogenic 14C terrestrial age of the meteorite, placing it in the Holocene. The crater is exposed to the surface.

Description

In 1937 Joe Webb, a shearer at Boxhole sheep station, took geologist Cecil Madigan to examine the crater. Madigan discovered nickel-bearing metallic fragments and iron shale-balls similar to those found at Henbury to the south of Alice Springs. It was the second impact crater to be described in Australia, after Henbury. A later search found additional meteoritic metal including an iron mass of 181 pounds (82 kg) , now in the Natural History Museum, London.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Bevan, Alex; McNamara Ken (1993). Australia's Meteorite Craters. Perth: Western Australian Museum. p. 15. ISBN 0-7309-5926-0.
  2. ↑ Kohman T. P. and Goel P.S. 1963. Terrestrial ages of meteorites from cosmogenic 14C. In: Radioactive Dating, pp. 395–411. International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna.
  3. ↑ "Boxhole". Earth Impact Database. Planetary and Space Science Centre University of New Brunswick Fredericton. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
  4. ↑ Madigan, C. T., The Boxhole crater and the Huckitta meteorite (central Australia). Royal Society South Australia Transactions and Proceedings, v. 61, pp.187–190. 1937
  5. ↑ Haines P.W. (2005). Impact cratering and distal ejecta: the Australian record. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, Volume 52, pp. 482 ' History of discovery an dinvestigations' Abstract
  6. ↑ Madigan, C.T. 1940. The Boxhole meteoric iron, central Australia, Mineralogical Magazine 25, 481-486
  7. ↑ Mark, Kathleen (1987). Meteorite Craters. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press. p. 90. ISBN 0-8165-1568-9.

Further reading