[meteorite-list] New Meteorite Crater Discovered in New Mexico

[Paul]

There is a paper, which is in press about the discovery of a new
meteorite structure in New Mexico. It is:

Fackelman, S. P. J. R. Morrow, C. Koeberl, T. H. McElvain, in press,
Shatter cone and microscopic shock-alteration evidence for a post-
Paleoproterozoic terrestrial impact structure near Santa Fe, New 
Mexico, USA. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Accepted 
Manuscript, Available online 7 April 2008, 
doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2008.03.033 ( http://dx.doi.org) 

The abstract reads in part:

“Field mapping, morphologic description, and petrographic 
analysis of recently discovered shatter cones within 
Paleoproterozoic crystalline rocks exposed over an area >5 
km2, located ~8 km northeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico, 
USA, give robust evidence of a previously unrecognized
terrestrial impact structure. Herein, we provisionally 
name this the “Santa Fe impact structure”. The shatter 
cones are composed of nested sub-conical, curviplanar, 
and flat joint surfaces bearing abundant curved and 
bifurcating striations that strongly resemble the multiply 
striated joint surfaces (MSJS) documented from shatter 
cones at Vredefort dome.”

and

“The PFs and PDFs are dominated by a basal (0001) 
crystallographic orientation, which indicate a peak shock 
pressure of ~5–10 GPa that is consistent with shatter 
cone formation.”

Yours,

Paul H.






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