Monturaqui
Coordinates: 23 ° 55 ′ 40 ″ S , 68 ° 15 ′ 42 ″ W
The Monturaqui meteorite crater in northern Chile is a simple, bowl-shaped impact crater with a diameter of around 360 m and a depth of 34 m, which was caused by an iron meteorite 500,000 to 780,000 years ago .
Location and surroundings
 
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Location of the Monturaqui meteorite crater in the Región de Antofagasta . The open red circles indicate three more meteorite craters that are in the area. |
The Monturaqui meteorite crater is located in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, in the municipality of San Pedro de Atacama . It is located at 23 ° 56 ′ S , 68 ° 16 ′ W at an altitude of 3015 m, 20 km south of the Salar de Atacama , in an extremely dry zone with no vegetation.
It is around 70 km from the eponymous ghost town of Monturaqui and 35 km from the oasis village of Peine.
The historic Inca road Qhapaq Ñan leads from the north of Peine via Tilomonte and past the crater. 900 meters from the crater rim is the ruin of the tambos "Tambillo El Cráter".
In the region there are some sites for iron meteorites that have been used as a source of iron by the local population in the past centuries.
The Monturaqui meteorite crater was only discovered by scientists in 1962 when evaluating aerial photographs of the region.
Other nearby impact craters known today are the Tujle ( 23 ° 50 ′ S , 67 ° 57 ′ W ), the Tilocalar ( 23 ° 59 ′ S , 68 ° 8 ′ W ), and the Imilac meteorite crater .
description
It is a simple, sub-circular crater. The diameter is 370 m in an east-west direction and 350 m in a north-south direction. With an average depth of 34 m, the wall height varies between 16 m and 48 m above the crater floor. In aerial photographs, the deepest zone appears as a distinctive bright spot away from the center. This area of around 40 m² consists of a 1 to 2 m thick layer of clay and silt.
The impactor was a class IIA hexahedrite iron meteorite . Model calculations were used to estimate that it had a diameter of 15 m. It hit at an angle of 41 ° at a speed of 17.8 km / s. An energy was released that corresponds to the explosive force of 1.14 megatons of TNT equivalent . An initially 54 m deep crater was probably formed. The ejected material was estimated at 6.7 million m³. The dust cloud that was thrown up in the process had a diameter of 15 miles.
A number of age determinations have shown that the impact occurred approximately 500,000 to 780,000 years ago.
| Crater age | Dating method |
|---|---|
| 590 ± 28 ka | Thermoluminescence age |
| 500 to 600 ka | 36 Cl, 26 Al surface exposure ages |
| 780 ka | Remagnetization Age |
| 663 ± 90 ka | (U-Th) / He age |
| 570 to 750 ka | (U-Th) / He age |
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Peate I. Ukstins, MC van Soest, J.-A. Wartho, N. Cabrol, E. Grin, J. Piatek, G. Chong ,: A Novel Application of (U-Th) / He Geochronology to Constrain the Age of Small, Young Meteorite Impact Craters: A Case Study of the Monturaqui Crater , Chile . In: Lunar and Planetary Institute Science Conference Abstracts (= Lunar and Planetary Inst. Technical Report . Volume 41 ). March 2010, bibcode : 2010LPI .... 41.2161U (English).
- ↑ a b Hernan Ugalde, Millarca Valenzuela, Bernd Milkereit: An integrated geophysical and geological study of the Monturaqui impact crater, Chile . In: Meteoritics & Planetary Science . tape 42 , no. 12 , 2007, p. 2153–2163 (English, journals.uair.arizona.edu [accessed October 8, 2013]).
- ↑ a b c Joaquin Sanchez, William Cassidy: A previously undescribed meteorite crater in Chile collective work = Journal of Geophysical Research . tape 71 , no. October 20 , 1966, p. 4891–4895 ( astro-udec.cl ( Memento from December 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) [PDF; 438 kB ; accessed on October 6, 2013]).
- ↑ Location of Monturaqui: 24 ° 21 ′ S , 68 ° 26 ′ W , coordinates from Google Earth 2013
- ^ Hans Niemeyer F., Virgilio Schiappacasse F .: Patrones de asentamiento incaicos en el Norte Grande de Chile . In: Tom D. Dillehay, Patgricia Netherly (ed.): La frontera del estado Inca (= BAR international series . No. 442 ). 2nd Edition. Fundación Alexander von Humboldt and Editorial Abya-Yala, Quito 1988, p. 114-152 ( hdl.handle.net ).
- ↑ Location of the Tambillo El Cráter: 23 ° 56 ′ S , 68 ° 16 ′ W , coordinates from Google Earth 2013
- ↑ Location con Tilomonte: 23 ° 47 ′ S , 68 ° 6 ′ W , coordinates from Google Earth 2013
- ↑ Rudolph Amandus Philippi : Journey through the Atacama Desert, undertaken and described on the orders of the Chilean government in the summer of 1853-1854 . Eduard Anton, Halle 1860 ( books.google.de [accessed December 30, 2012]).
- ^ F. Ferrando A .: Two unknown Meteor Craters in Antofagasta Region, Northern Chile . In: Revista Geográfica . June 1977, ISSN 0031-0581 , p. 210-212 , JSTOR : 40993113 .
- ↑ Hernan Ugalde, Millarca Valenzuela, E. Casas, B. Milkereit, M. Grandon, S. Contreras: New geological and geophysical antecedents at the Monturaqui Impact Crater, Chile . In: American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2004, abstract # NS22A-01 . May 2004, bibcode : 2004AGUSMNS22A..01U (English).
- ↑ a b Daniel Owen Cukierski: Textural and compositional analysis of Fe-Ni metallic spherules in impact melt from Monturaqui Crater, Chile . Master's thesis, University of Iowa. 2013 ( ir.uiowa.edu [accessed October 16, 2013]).
- ↑ JC Echaurren, AC Ocampo, MCL Rocca: A Mathematic model for the Monturaqui Impact Crater, Chile, South America . 68th Annual Meteoritical Society Meeting. 2005 ( lpi.usra.edu [PDF; 25 kB ; accessed on October 8, 2013]).
- ^ M. Verdugo, C. Cartes: Establecimiento de la Edad del Crater Monturaqui por el Metodo de Termoluminicencia en Solidos. Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile, 2000.
- ↑ M. Valenzuela, P. Rochette, DL Bourlès, R. Bübers, T. Faestermann, RC Finkel, J. Gattacceca, G. Korschinek, S. Merchel, D. Morata, M. Poutivtsev, G. Rugel, C. Suavet : The Age of the Monturaqui Impact Crater . 72nd Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, held July 13-18, 2009 in Nancy, France. In: Meteoritics and Planetary Science . 2009, ISSN 1086-9379 , p. 5185 , bibcode : 2009M & PSA..72.5185V .
- ↑ M. Valenzuela, DL Bourlès, R. Bübers, T. Faestermann, RC Finkel, J. Gattacceca, G. Korschinek, S. Merchel, D. Morata, M. Poutivtsev, P. Rochette, G. Rugel, C. Suavet : New Age Estimation of the Monturaqui Impact Crater . Annual Report 2008 Annual Report. Maier-Leibnitz Laboratory of the University and the Technical University of Munich, 2008, p. 27 ( bl.physik.uni-muenchen.de [PDF; 388 kB ; accessed on October 16, 2013]).
- ↑ David W. Peate, Ingrid Ukstins Peate, Chungwan Lim, Christine Kloberdanz: Petrographic and compositional characterization of metallic spherules in impact melt at Monturaqui Crater, Chile . GSA Annual Meeting in Minneapolis (October 9-12, 2011). ( gsa.confex.com [accessed October 16, 2013]).