Manicouagan crater

The central René-Levasseur Island.
Manicouagan crater

The crater in winter, photographed by Space Shuttle mission STS-9 in 1983 (north is to the lower right).
Impact crater/structure
Confidence Confirmed[1]
Diameter 100 kilometres (62 mi)
Age 214 ± 1 million years old (Triassic Period)
Exposed Yes
Drilled Yes
Location
Location Rivière-aux-Outardes / Rivière-Mouchalagane, Quebec
Coordinates 51°23′N 68°42′W / 51.383°N 68.700°W / 51.383; -68.700Coordinates: 51°23′N 68°42′W / 51.383°N 68.700°W / 51.383; -68.700
Country Canada
Manicouagan crater

Location of the Manicouagan crater in Quebec

Topo map Canada NTS 22N
Access Quebec Route 389

The Manicouagan Crater is one of the oldest known impact craters and is the largest 'visible' impact crater on Earth, located primarily in Manicouagan Regional County Municipality in the Côte-Nord region of Québec, Canada,[1] about 300 km (190 mi) north of the city of Baie-Comeau. At roughly 213-215 million years old, Manicouagan is one of the oldest large astroblemes still visible on the surface. Its northernmost part is located in Caniapiscau Regional County Municipality.

It is thought to have been caused by the impact of a 5 km (3 mi) diameter asteroid or comet about 215.5 million years ago (Triassic Period).[2][3] It was once considered to be associated with the end-Carnian extinction event.

The crater is a multiple-ring structure about 100 km (60 mi) across, with its 70 km (40 mi) diameter inner ring its most prominent feature. It also contains a 70 km (40 mi) diameter annular lake – the Manicouagan Reservoir – surrounding an inner island plateau called René-Levasseur Island. It is the earth's sixth-largest confirmed impact crater according to rim-to-rim diameter.[4]

Hypothetical multiple impact event

It has been suggested that the Manicouagan crater may have been part of a multiple impact event which also formed the Rochechouart crater in France, Saint Martin crater in Manitoba, Obolon' crater in Ukraine, and Red Wing crater in North Dakota. Geophysicist David Rowley of the University of Chicago, working with John Spray of the University of New Brunswick and Simon Kelley of the Open University, discovered that the five craters appeared to form a chain, indicating the breakup and subsequent impact of an asteroid or comet,[5] similar to the well observed string of impacts of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter in 1994.[6]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Manicouagan". Earth Impact Database. University of New Brunswick. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
  2. ↑ Hodych, J.P.; G.R.Dunning (1992). "Did the Manicouagan impact trigger end-of-Triassic mass extinction?". Geology. 20: 51.54. Bibcode:1992Geo....20...51H. doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1992)020<0051:DTMITE>2.3.CO;2.
  3. ↑ Ramezani, J., S. A. Bowring, M. S. Pringle, F. D. Winslow, III, and E. T. Rasbury (2005). "The Manicouagan impact melt rock: a proposed standard for intercalibration of U-Pb and 40Ar/39Ar isotopic systems". 15th V.M. Goldsmidt Conference Abstract Volume, p. A321.
  4. ↑ "Impact Structures listed by Diameter (Increasing)". PASSC. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  5. ↑ Spray, J.G., Kelley, S.P. and Rowley, D.B. (1998). "Evidence for a late Triassic multiple impact event on Earth". Nature, v. 392, pp. 171-173. Abstract
  6. ↑ Steele, Diana (19 March 1998). "Crater chain points to impact of fragmented comet". University of Chicago Chronicle.

7. Martin Schmieder, Fred Jourdan, Eric Tohver & Edward A. Cloutis (2014): 40Ar/39Ar age of the Lake Saint Martin impact structure (Canada) – Unchaining the Late Triassic terrestrial impact craters – Earth and Planetary Science Letters 406, 37–48.

External links

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