The Bow City crater is a potential[1] meteorite impact crater located in southern Alberta, Canada.[2][3][4][5]
| Bow City crater | |
|---|---|
  Bow City crater Location of the crater in Alberta, Canada  Bow City crater Bow City crater (Alberta) | |
| Impact crater/structure | |
| Confidence | Potential[1] |
| Diameter | ~8 kilometers (5.0 mi) |
| Age | ~73 Ma Late Cretaceous |
| Exposed | No |
| Location | |
| Location | Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin |
| Coordinates | 50°26′N 112°24′W / 50.433°N 112.400°W |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Alberta |
| Municipality | Bow City, Alberta |
The 8-kilometre-wide (5.0 mi) crater was discovered in 2012 by Wei Xie of the University of Alberta. The crater is estimated to have formed approximately 70 million years ago. The crater is not directly visible from the surface, as it is buried under approximately a kilometre of overburden. Petrochemical seismic studies provided the first clues to the existence of the crater.
References
edit- ^ a b Mikheeva, 2017
- ^
Nadia Drake (2012-12-04). "New Buried Asteroid Impact Crater Discovered in Canada". Wired magazine. Archived from the original on 2013-02-12.
"I was really surprised," said Wei Xie, a graduate student in geophysics at the University of Alberta, who presented the find on Dec. 3 at the American Geophysical Union conference. "Only a handful of these buried craters are known," she said.
- ^
Scott Sutherland (2012-12-04). "Ancient asteroid impact crater discovered near Alberta ghost town". Geekquinox. Archived from the original on 2012-12-08.
The seismic map of the crater shows the structure of it quite well, with its low-lying interior and characteristic central peak. The team also noted some potentially unique features of the crater, which indicate that some of the sediments were pushed directly outward from the impact, rather than being blown upwards.
- ^
Rosemary Westwood (2012-12-06). "Grad student finds new asteroid crater in southern Alberta". Macleans magazine.
The crater has long been covered over and is estimated to be about 70 million years old. It took an analysis of data from boreholes drilled in the area and seismic wave surveys to show the giant crater below the surface. Xie and her colleagues will continue to search for definite proof."
- ^ Paul GLOMBICK, Douglas R. SCHMITT, Wei XIE, Todd BOWN, Ben HATHWAY, and Christopher BANKS (2014). The Bow City structure, southern Alberta, Canada: The deep roots of a complex impact structure?, Meteoritics & Planetary Science, p. 1–24
Bibliography
edit- Mikheeva, Anna (2017), The Complete Catalog of the Earth's Impact structures, Russian Academy of Sciences, p. 1, archived from the original on 2019-04-03, retrieved 2019-04-02
External links
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