Dalgaranga crater

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English Template:Infobox terrestrial impact site Dalgaranga crater is a small meteorite impact crater located on Dalgaranga pastoral station Template:Cvt northwest of Mount Magnet (or north of Yalgoo) in Western Australia. It is only Template:Cvt in diameter and Template:Cvt deep, making it Australia's smallest impact crater (with exception of the smallest members of the Henbury crater field).<ref>Template:Cite Earth Impact DB</ref><ref name="Bevan_1996">Template:Cite journal</ref> Though discovered in 1921, it was not reported in the scientific literature until 1938.<ref name="Simpson_1938">Simpson E.S. 1938. Some new and little known meteorites found in Western Australia. Mineralogical Magazine 25, 157–171.</ref> The bedrock at the site is weathered Archaean granite of the Yilgarn craton. The discovery of fragments of mesosiderite stony-iron meteorite around the crater confirms an impact origin,<ref name="Nininger_1960">Template:Cite journal</ref> making this crater unique as the only one known to have been produced by a mesosiderite projectile.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Description

Asymmetries in the crater structure and the ejecta blanket imply that the projectile impacted at low angle from the south-southeast.<ref name="Shoemaker_etal_2005">Template:Cite journal</ref> The age is not accurately constrained but must be young because it is so well preserved for its small size, and the meteorite fragments have not weathered away; some authors suggest an age of as young as 3000 years.<ref name="Shoemaker_1988">Shoemaker E.M. & Shoemaker C.S. 1988. Impact structures of Australia (1987). Lunar and Planetary Science Conference XIX, 1079–1080. Abstract</ref>

Discovery

The crater was discovered by an Aboriginal stockman named Billy Seward in 1921. The meteorites were found shortly after by Gerard Wellard, the station manager, when Seward took him to the site. It was not until 1923 that meteorite fragments were sent to the Western Australian Museum.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>