Sudbury Basin

46.6 - 81.183333333333Koordinaten: 46 ° 36 '0 "N, 81 ° 11' 0 " W

The Sudbury Basin (English Sudbury Basin, also known as " Sudbury Crater " ) is - according to the Vredefort crater in South Africa - the second- largest known impact crater on earth. The basin is located in the city of Greater Sudbury in the Canadian province of Ontario and was the impact of a large asteroid about 10 km before about 1.8 billion years ago. The crater originally had a diameter of about 200 to 250 km. The crater was deformed and placed 30 km to its current, smaller and elliptical shape of 60 km × by geological processes.

In the northeast the basin adjacent to the crater which fills the Wanapitei Lake. This crater has a diameter of 8 km and is at an age of 37 million years younger than the Sudbury crater.

Effects

The richest nickel deposits that are currently known on earth build upon the Sudbury Basin. They were ortho magmatic during felling. Due to decompress after the impact of the asteroid, a process of melting of ultramafic rocks took place, which led to the formation of a gabbroic melt. The nickel ore ( pentlandite ) was then by the segregation of sulphide and silicate melt and the subsequent Absaigern the sulfide melt at the base of the ultramafic intrusion. The ore is located on the edge and bottom of the former crater. Perhaps the impact has also promoted the mixing of the former ocean and so ends the formation of banded iron ores.