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The age of the Saltpan impact crater, South Africa

Christian Koeberl, D. Störzer, W. U. Reimold

Open publisher page 12 citations

Abstract

Abstract— The 1.13‐km‐diameter Pretoria Saltpan impact crater is located about 40 km NNW of Pretoria, South Africa. The crater is situated in 2.05 Ga old Nebo granite of the Bushveld Complex that is locally intruded by about 1.3 Ga old volcanic rocks. In 1988, a borehole was drilled in the center of the crater. At depths >90 m, breccias were found that contained minerals with characteristic shock‐metamorphic features, thus confirming the impact origin of the crater. Fragments of impact glass were recovered from the melt breccias and several hundred sub‐millimeter‐sized glass fragments were subjected to fission track analysis. The measurements were complicated by the inhomogeneous composition of the impact glasses, but analysis of a large number of tracks yielded an age of 220 ± 52 ka for the Saltpan crater.

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Abstract— The 1.13‐km‐diameter Pretoria Saltpan impact crater is located about 40 km NNW of Pretoria, South Africa. The crater is situated in 2.05 Ga old Nebo granite of the Bushveld Complex that is locally intruded by about 1.3 Ga old volcanic rocks. In 1988, a borehole was drilled in the center of the crater. At depths >90 m, breccias were found that contained minerals with characteristic shock‐metamorphic features, thus confirming the impact origin of the crater. Fragments of impact glass were recovered from the melt breccias and several hundred sub‐millimeter‐sized glass fragments were subjected to fission track analysis. The measurements were complicated by the inhomogeneous composition of the impact glasses, but analysis of a large number of tracks yielded an age of 220 ± 52 ka for the Saltpan crater.

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Available abstract

Abstract— The 1.13‐km‐diameter Pretoria Saltpan impact crater is located about 40 km NNW of Pretoria, South Africa. The crater is situated in 2.05 Ga old Nebo granite of the Bushveld Complex that is locally intruded by about 1.3 Ga old volcanic rocks. In 1988, a borehole was drilled in the center of the crater. At depths >90 m, breccias were found that contained minerals with characteristic shock‐metamorphic features, thus confirming the impact origin of the crater. Fragments of impact glass were recovered from the melt breccias and several hundred sub‐millimeter‐sized glass fragments were subjected to fission track analysis. The measurements were complicated by the inhomogeneous composition of the impact glasses, but analysis of a large number of tracks yielded an age of 220 ± 52 ka for the Saltpan crater.

Key concepts: Impact crater, Breccia, Geology, Impact structure, Volcano, Geochemistry, Borehole, Metamorphic rock

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