|Coordinates:||22.9700 S 125.3725 E|
|No:||371 (list of all attractions)|
|Categories:||Impact craters and meteorites|
|Address:||Australia and Oceania, Australia, Western Australia, remote area in Pilbara region|
|Age:||most likely less than 4 000 years|
One of best preserved impact craters on Earth is Veevers Crater. This crater in remote part of Western Australia was noticed by specialists only in July 1975.
Veevers crater is named after Australian geologist John Veevers who used to work in this area in 1950ies. This small crater was noticed by geologists during survey in July 1975 and they were almost certain that it has been created by meteorite.
Some years later, in August 1984 the famous couple of scientists Carolyn and Eugene Merle Shoemaker discovered several pieces of metallic meteorite on the rims of crater - thus the meteoritic origin of crater was verified.
The age of crater is not certain - but most likely less than 4 000 years. Meteorite fell in flat desert plain between Great Sandy and Gibson Deserts. The dry desert environment has conserved the consequences of the impact very well - even the pieces of meteorite still look rather fresh.
Crater is symmetrical, bowl-shaped, formed in Cenozoic laterites. Rim of the crater is some 20 m wide and rises approximately 1.5 m above the surrounding plain. Diameter of crater is 70 - 80 m, depth - up to 7 m. The original meteorite was some 100 - 1000 tons heavy.
This is the only known impact crater on Earth created by the very rare IIAB iron meteorite. Less than 0.5% of meteorites on Earth belong to this type. Pieces of meteorite contain exotic, very rare metallic minerals - octahedrite, schreibersite and rhabdite, kamacite, carlsbergite.
See Veevers crater on the map of Australia!
- A.W.R.Bevan, E.M.Shoemaker and C.S.Shoemaker. Metallography and thermo-mechanical treatment of the Veevers (IIAB) crater-forming meteorite., Records of the Western Australian Museum 17:51-59 (1995). Accessed in 15th January 2013.
This giant Australian state is spectacular and very rich with diverse, unusual landmarks. Highlights of Western Australia are:
- Biodiversity. Most of Western Australia is dry land, but far lands across this desert in the western part of continent serve as refuges of unique fauna and flora.
- Geology and cliff formations. History of this land is counted in billions of years. Billions of years... Cliff formations in Western Auastralia often have no analogues. Some of the most amazing ones are Bungle Bungle Range and Wave Rock.
- Aboriginal art. In Kimberley and other regions are located countless examples of indigenous rock art, often of high artistic quality. Truly unique is Murujuga site in Burrup peninsula - possibly world's largest art gallery with more than one million drawings.
There are many pieces of solid matter flying around in the space. And VERY frequently they fall on the surface of Earth. There are estimates that every year on Earth fall 18,000 – 84,000 meteorites larger than 10 grams: e.g. one meteorite every 6 – 30 minutes.
This category includes outstanding impact craters - detectable scars on the surface of Earth left by a body coming from outer space. Category includes also meteorites - natural objects from the outer space.