Publication Date:
2014-08-21
Description:
The origin of the Rio Cuarto crater field, Argentina has been widely debated since the early 1990s when it was first brought to public attention. In a binary on–off sense, however, the craters are either of a terrestrial origin or they formed via a large asteroid impact. While there are distinct arguments in favour of the former option being the correct interpretation, it is the latter possibility that is principally investigated here, and five distinct impact formation models are described. Of the impact scenarios it is found that the most workable model, although based upon a set of fine-tuned initial conditions, is that in which a large, 100–150-m initial diameter asteroid, entered Earth’s atmosphere on a shallow angle path that resulted in temporary capture. In this specific situation a multiple-thousand kilometer long flight path enables the asteroid to survive atmospheric passage, without suffering significant fragmentation, and to impact the ground as a largely coherent mass. Although the odds against such an impact occurring are extremely small, the crater field may nonetheless be interpreted as having potentially formed via a very low-angle, smaller than 5° to the horizon, impact with a ground contact speed of order 5 km/s. Under this scenario, as originally suggested by Schultz and Lianza (Nature 355:234, 1992 ), the largest of the craters (crater A) in the Rio Cuarto structure was produced in the initial ground impact, and the additional, smaller craters are interpreted as being formed through the down-range transport of decapitated impactor material and crater A ejecta.
Print ISSN:
0167-9295
Electronic ISSN:
1573-0794
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics
