The Dalgaranga Crater
Under Construction
The Dalgaranga meteorite crater is located in west central Western Australia. It is located at 117 deg 17 min 45 sec east and 27 deg 39 min 37 sec south on the Cue SG50-15 1:250 000 map sheet and the Dalgaranga 2342 1:100 000 map sheet. The Dalgaranga crater is Australia's smallest meteorite crater and is 24 m in diameter and 3 m deep. The crater was first identified by W W Wellard in 1923. The meteoritic origin of the crater was confirmed by the occurrence of mesosiderite stony-iron meteorite fragments around and within the crater. The information summarised here has been derived from Haines (2005).
The crater has been mapped in detail by Shoemaker et al (2005) and they ascribed an age of less than 3000 years for the impact (Shoemaker and Shoemaker 1988).
In 2012, the Meteoritical Society hosted a field excursion to some of the WA craters and impact sites, and the extract for the Dalgaranga Crater visit can be found here.
Location map for the Dalgaranga Meteorite Crater (topo source Geoscience Australia)
Geology for the Dalgaranga Meteorite Crater (from Shoemaker et al 2005)
References
Bevan A. 2012. Dalgaranga Meteorite Crater. In: Western Australian Impact Craters, Field Excursion 20-29 August 2012. Meteoritical Society.
Haines P W. 2005. Impact Cratering and Distal Ejecta: the Australian Record. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, vol. 52, parts 4-5, p. 481-507.
Nininger H H and Huss G I. 1960. The Unique Meteorite Crater at Dalgaranga, Western Australia. Mineralogical Magazine, vol. 32, p. 619-639.
Shoemaker E M and Shoemaker C S. 1988. Impact Structures of Australia. Lunar and Planetary Science Conference XIX, p. 1079-1080.
Shoemaker E M, Macdonald F A, and Shoemaker C S. 2005. Geology of Five Small Australian Impact Craters. Journal of Australian Earth Sciences, vol. 52, p. 529-544.
Smith T R and Hodge P W. 1996. Microscopic Meteoritic Materials at the Dalgaranga, Odessa and Veevers Meteorite Craters. Lunar and Planetary Science Conference XXVII, p. 1223-1224.
Other Impact Sites of Western Australia
Glikson
Gnargoo
Goat Paddock
Ilkurka
Lennis
Neereno Hill Possible Impact Structure
Piccaninny
Shoemaker (formerly Teague)
Skirmish
Spider
Veveers
Woodliegh