Ramgarh crater, also known as ''Ramgarh structure'', ''Ramgarh Dome'' and ''Ramgarh astrobleme'', is a meteor

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 ...

of diameter in Kota plateau of

Vindhya Range The Vindhya Range (also known as Vindhyachal) () is a complex, discontinuous chain of mountain ridges, hill ranges, highlands and plateau escarpments in west-central India. Technically, the Vindhyas do not form a single mountain range in the ...

located adjacent to Ramgarh village, 40 km north of Baran City in Mangrol tehsil of

Baran district Baran district is a district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The headquarters of the district are located at the city of Baran. History Before Indian independence in 1947, most of present-day Baran district was part of the princely stat ...

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 subnational entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into 800 districts and smaller administrative divisions by the respe ...

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

. When formally accepted as the third crater in India, its diameter size would be between the two already confirmed craters in India - Dhala in Madhya Pradesh with 14 km diameter and Lonar in

Buldhana district Buldhana district (Marathi pronunciation: ulɖʰaːɳa is located in the Amravati division of Maharashtra, India. It is situated at the western border of Vidarbha region and is 500 km away from the state capital, Mumbai. The district ha ...

of Maharashtra with 1.8 km diameter. It is designated as a National Geological Monument. The Bhand Deva Temple, a 10th-century Shiva temple in the style of the

Khajuraho Group of Monuments The Khajuraho Group of Monuments are a group of Hindu and Jain temples in Chhatarpur district, Madhya Pradesh, India. They are about 46 km (28.6mi) from Chhatarpur, Chhatarpur city, the district headquarter, 283 km (177mi) from Gwalior, southea ...

, is located near the centre of the crater.

Kuno National Park Kuno National Park is a national park and wildlife sanctuary in Gwalior Chambal region of Madhya Pradesh, India. It derives its name from the Kuno River. It was established in 1981 as a wildlife sanctuary with an initial area of . In 2018, it ...

, 50–60 km away, is accessible by multiple entry points via minor roads or NH6. The crater, on the western edge of the

, lies 40 km north of

Baran __NOTOC__ Baran may refer to: * Baran (name) Places Europe * Baran, Belarus, a town * Baran, Lublin Voivodeship, a village in Poland * Baran, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, a village in Poland * Uroczysko Baran killing fields near Kąkolewnica, Pol ...

, 60 km from

Delhi–Mumbai Expressway The Delhi–Vadodra–Mumbai Expressway is a 1,350 km long, 8-lane wide (expandable to 12-lane) under-construction (partially operational) access-controlled expressway connecting India's national capital New Delhi to its financial capital ...

, 110 km east of Kota, 250 south of

Jaipur Jaipur (; , ) is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the List of cities and towns in Rajasthan, largest city of the north-western States and union territories of India, Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had ...

and 500 km south of

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

. It is 200 km west of Dhala crater in Madhya Pradesh and 745 km north of Lonar crater in Maharashtra. The crater is featured as one of the locations in the 2020 documentary Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds.

Scientific studies

The crater is yet to be fully investigated in a systematic way. In 1869, Ramgahr crater was first visited by geologist Frederick Richard Mallet Mallet, F. R., 1869, Memoir,

Geological Survey of India The Geological Survey of India (GSI) is a scientific agency of India. It was founded in 1851, as a Government of India organization under the Ministry of Mines, one of the oldest of such organisations in the world and the second oldest survey ...

, vol 7, page 129. of

(GSI).BALASUNDARAM, M., DUBE, A. Ramgarh, 1973, "Structure, India",

Nature (journal) ''Nature'' is a British weekly scientific journal founded and based in London, England. As a multidisciplinary publication, ''Nature'' features Peer review, peer-reviewed research from a variety of academic disciplines, mainly in science and t ...

, 242, 40 doi:10.1038/242040a0.

Rai Bahadur Rai Bahadur (in North India) and Rao Bahadur (in South India), R.B., was a title of honour bestowed during British rule in India to individuals for outstanding service or acts of public welfare to the Empire. From 1911, the title was accompani ...

Kishan Singh Rawat (1850–1921), a colonial era Indian explorer and cartographer, was first to map it on a small scale (1 : 63,360).Kenneth Mason, 1923, "Kishen Singh and the Indian Explorers", The Geographical Journal, Vol. LXII-July to December.Derek J. Waller, 2004, "The Pundits: British Exploration of Tibet and Central Asia," University Press of Kentucky. Other studies include by those of Arthur Lennox Coulson (1927–28), Sharma and Singh and Jaganathan and Rao (1969–70), Crawford (1972),Crawford, A. R., 1972,

, 237, 96. Rakshit (1973), Ramaswamy (1981), Vimal Kumar Reddy(1984) etc. A rootless mass of sheared sandstone found near Bandewara temple in the crater indicates a fall back material. Crawford, after discovering shatter coned

colluvium Colluvium (also colluvial material or colluvial soil) is a general name for loose, unconsolidated sediments that have been deposited at the base of hillslopes by either rainwash, Sheet erosion , sheetwash, slow continuous downslope creep, or a va ...

in the middle of the crater, was first to suggest that this was an impact crater. Auden suggested that the crater in upper

might be

kimberlite Kimberlite is an igneous rock and a rare variant of peridotite. It is most commonly known as the main host matrix for diamonds. It is named after the town of Kimberley, Northern Cape, Kimberley in South Africa, where the discovery of an 83.5-Car ...

intrusion In geology, an igneous intrusion (or intrusive body or simply intrusion) is a body of intrusive igneous rock that forms by crystallization of magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Intrusions have a wide variety of forms and com ...

similar to Majhgawan kimberlite intrusion. In 1960,

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe, with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

recognised it as an impact crater.Ramgarh crater caused by meteorite impact, claim experts
Economic Times, 9 January 2019. In addition, the Ramgarh crater is already among the confirmed/proven list of impact craters based on three-step confidence level criteria of Anna Mikheeva of

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

(1 for probable, 2 for potential, 3 for questionable),* , 2017 applied to the impact sites that have appeared several times in the literature and/or have been endorsed by the

Impact Field Studies Group The Impact Field Studies Group (IFSG) was a scientific organization emphasizing geologic field research of suspected and confirmed sites of impact craters and impact structures. The group is composed of researchers, professionals and students invol ...

(IFSG) and/or Expert Database on Earth Impact Structures (EDEIS). The

Earth Impact Database The Earth Impact Database is a database of confirmed impact structures or impact crater, craters on Earth. It was initiated in 1955 by the Dominion Observatory, Ottawa, under the direction of Carlyle Smith Beals, Carlyle S. Beals. Since 2001, it h ...

(EID), at the

University of New Brunswick The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English language, English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universiti ...

in Canada, is used as the most authoritative for confirming the impact craters. The confirmation of Ramgarh being impact crater from EID is pending. In January 2018 Professor Vinod Agrawal and Geologists Pushpendra Singh Ranawat and Mr. Jitendra Kumar Sharma (convenor INTACH Baran chapter), members of team composed of GSI,

INTACH The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is a non-profit charitable organisation registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. In 2007, the United Nations awarded INTACH a special consultative status with the ...

and Mohanlal Sukhadia University, which visited the crater to collect samples for the scientific study of the genesis of the crater, said the several types of evidence at crater meets the established criteria for the meteorite impact and that is a very rare site in India of multi-faceted significance including geological heritage. Team stated that the ample research on the site has been conducted to gather

geochemical Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the ...

and other evidence published in peer-reviewed journals, hence once the evidence is accepted by the national and global approving entities in India and Canada respectively the crater will be likely recognised as 191st impact crater in the world and 3rd in India by 2020 by the Earth Impact Database.

Geology

Topography

Located on a 240m MSL high plateau, the diameter Ramgarh ring crater rise further 150 to 200 m above the surrounding plateau. Located in

it is part of Bhander Group of Vindhyan Supergroup it has a raised rim and a circular (it's not actually a circle but almost like shape that resembles drop of water) depression in its centre forming a plain with average elevation of 260 m above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

Hydrology

Ramgarh rivulet flows from the south-west chasm of the crater and it becomes a tributary of Parvati river 4 km in the west. There are several other

gullies A gully is a landform created by running water, mass movement, or both, which erodes soil to a sharp angle, typically on a hillside or in river floodplains or terraces. Gullies resemble large ditches or small valleys, but are metres to t ...

(deeper channel and ditches cut into rocks and soil by the erosive action of fast flowing forceful water) and

rill In hillslope geomorphology, a rill is a shallow channel (no more than a few inches/centimeters deep) cut into soil by the erosive action of flowing surface water. Similar but smaller incised channels are known as microrills; larger incised ...

s (shallow channel cut into soil by the erosive action of flowing water) formed with

radial Radial is a geometric term of location which may refer to: Mathematics and Direction * Vector (geometric), a line * Radius, adjective form of * Radial distance (geometry), a directional coordinate in a polar coordinate system * Radial set * A ...

(flowing out of crater) and centripetal (flowing in to crater) drainage. Radial streams flow into the Parbati River, a tributary of

Chambal River The Chambal River is a tributary of the Yamuna River in Central India, Central and North India, Northern India, and thus forms part of the drainage system of the Ganges. The river flows north-northeast through Madhya Pradesh, running for a brie ...

,Pratiyogita Darpan
August, 2007; p. 268

Mineralogy

Glass resembling rock samples were collected and investigated. These spherules contain very high percentage of iron, along with very high ratios of

nickel Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...

and

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. ...

. This high ratios suggests a

meteorite A meteorite is a rock (geology), rock that originated in outer space and has fallen to the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical ...

strike or

extraterrestrial rocks Extraterrestrial may refer to: Science * Extraterrestrial life, life that occurs outside of Earth and that probably did not originate from Earth Media * ''Extraterrestrial'' (TV program), a program on the National Geographic Channel * '' Extrate ...

References