Bowtyschka crater
 
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Situation in Ukraine |
Location and extent of the Bowtyschka crater |
The Bowtyschka Crater ( Ukrainian Бовтиська западина ; also: Boltysh) is a complex impact crater in the center of Ukraine .
description
The center of the crater is in the Tyasmyn Valley in Kirovohrad Oblast in Oleksandrivka Raion . The crater named after the nearby village of Bovtyschka is dated around 66 million years ago. With a diameter of 24 kilometers and an area of approx. 350 km², it is the largest known impact crater in Ukraine and about the same size as the impact crater of the Nördlinger Ries in Germany, although not as well preserved as this one.
It is the best-studied impact crater in Ukraine and, because of its similar age, it is famous for the Chicxulub crater in Mexico on the Cretaceous-Paleogene border . In the early crater lake sediments of the Bovtyschka crater, ejecta from the Chicxulub impact was detected. Hence, it is believed that the Bovyschka crater is several millennia older than the Chicxulub impact. Impact rocks, including various breccias and impact molten rocks, are stored inside the crater. The central mountain with a diameter of about 6 km rises 550 m above the crater floor. It is covered by 500 m thick younger sediments and was discovered during an oil shale exploration in the 1960s.
See also
literature
- M. Schmieder, E. Buchner: Impact events in Europe. In: Z. Dt. Ges. Geowiss. (German J. Geosci.), 164 (3), 2013, pp. 387-415.
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 48 ° 54 ′ 0.1 ″ N , 32 ° 10 ′ 0.4 ″ E