Boxhole is a young
impact crater
An impact crater is a depression (geology), depression in the surface of a solid astronomical body formed by the hypervelocity impact event, impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal c ...
located approximately 180 km (265 km by road) north-east of
Alice Springs
Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...
in the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...
, Australia. It is 170 metres in diameter and its age is estimated to be 5,400 ± 1,500 years based on the cosmogenic
14C terrestrial age of the meteorite, placing it in the
Holocene
The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...
. The crater is exposed to the surface.
Description
In 1937 Joe Webb, a shearer at Boxhole sheep station, took geologist
Cecil Madigan
Cecil Thomas Madigan (15 October 1889 – 14 January 1947) was an Australian explorer and geologist, academic, aerial surveyor, meteorologist, author and officer of the British army. He was born in Renmark, South Australia. His family had assoc ...
to examine the crater. Madigan discovered nickel-bearing metallic fragments and iron shale-balls similar to those found at
Henbury to the south of Alice Springs. It was the second impact crater to be described in Australia, after Henbury.
A later search found additional meteoritic metal including an iron mass of 181 pounds (82 kg) ,
now in the Natural History Museum, London.
See also
*
List of impact craters in Australia
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
References
Further reading
* Cassidy, W. A., Descriptions and topographic maps of the Wolf Creek and Boxhole craters, Australia (abstract). French, B.M. and Short, N.M., eds., Shock Metamorphism of Natural Materials, Mono Book Corp., Baltimore, MD, p. 623. 1968
* Shoemaker, E. M., Roddy, D.J., Shoemaker, C.S. and Roddy,J.K., The Boxhole meteorite crater, Northern territory, Australia (abstract). Lunar and Planetary Science XIX, pp. 1081–1082. 1988
External links
* Particles around Boxhole meteorite crater.
* Natural History Museum (Boxhole Meteorit
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boxhole Crater
Impact craters of the Northern Territory
Holocene impact craters
Quaternary Australia
Geology of the Northern Territory