Woodleigh crater

The Woodleigh crater is a large crater in the center of Woodleigh Station east was formed by the impact of a meteorite in the Australian Western Australia Shark Bay, Western Australia. The crater is located in the geological Carnarvonbecken, a sedimentary basin.

There are more than two dozen impact craters in Australia, the largest are the Woodleigh, Acraman and Tookoonooka crater.

Discovery

A team of scientists from the Geological Survey of Western Australia and the Australian National University under the direction of Arthur J. Mory was the impact craters on April 15, 2000 in Earth and Planetary Science Letters known.

The central elevation Woodleigh crater was interpreted by first drilling in the 1970s as a survey with a diameter of 20 kilometers, the impact structure was recognized by gravitational studies until 1997. 1999, a study of the crater was made. The thin strands of molten glass, breccia and altered crystals, which were found, developed under pressures that are 100,000 times greater than the air pressure at sea level or between 10 to 100 times greater than volcanic or earthquake activity. Only a great impact could cause such geological changes.

Meteorite impact

The impact of Woodleigh likely to have occurred between the Late Triassic and Late Permian and is estimated today between 364 ± 8 million years ago (late Devonian). The specified time corresponds approximately with the event, extinct than about 40 % of the species. There is evidence for other impacts at this time, so that this extinction is related to this impact, möchlicherweise several Karter were involved.