Geophysics

   

The 50km 3-Gyr Archean Impact Crater in NW-Australia (Pilbara Craton)_raman-Spectra of Selected Rock Samples

Authors: Harry K. Hahn

The 50km Archean Impact Crater with an age of >3 Gyr is located 150km SE of Port-Hedland on the Pilbara Craton near Marble Bar/Western-Australia. The impact-structure is noticeable on a magnetic-anomaly map and on a contrast-enhanced satellite map. It is a yet unknown impact structure ! This impact crater is very interesting, especially for Astrobiologists, because some of the earliest life-forms on Earth developed inside the crater-area after the impact ! The Dresser- and Strelley-Pool- Formations inside the crater contain some of the oldest fosselized Stromatolites on Earth ! I have analysed some rock-samples which I have collected along a mainroad which passes the crater just outside its northern crater-rim-area (samples No: 14 to 21). Note that the original crater-wall was later deformed by an (expansion) tectonic process that obviously was caused by the impact. And the impact in all probability was an oblique impact, which means the impactor impacted in a relatively shallow angle of ≤30°. Because of the oblique impact and the tectonic-process, fragments of the original crater-wall ended up further north close to the road were I collected the samples. Therefore the collected samples probably originate from the elevated crater-rim area. The Raman spectra of quartz from the sample-sites 14, 16, 18 and 21-A collected along the main-road provide first evidence for an impact (shock) event as the probable cause of the described structure. The shifts of the main Raman peaks, of analysed quartz grains from these sites, to the lower frequencies 463, 259/266, 125 cm-1 and 463, 262, 125 and 463, 263, 204 and 463, 263, 126 are a clear first indication for an impact shock event that has caused a shock pressure of around 22 GPa ! Further indication comes from the Raman-spectrum of quartz from sample-site 23 collected near the small town Marble Bar, that originates from the western crater-rim-area of the impact crater, which also shows clear shifts of the main Raman peaks to the lower frequencies : 463, 262, 204 and 125 cm-1 Microscopic images of some of the analysed quartz grains may provide further proof for a shock-event. (see Images on pages: 6,7,9,10,11 and 13). Images of the analysed rock-samples and photos of the sample-sites are in the Appendix at page 18. References: see page 25

Comments: 25 pages, 62 images . 31diagrams

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[v1] 2022-01-05 18:14:37

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