Boxhole crater

Coordinates: 22°36′45″S 135°11′43″E / 22.61250°S 135.19528°E

Boxhole meteorite crater, July 2011

Boxhole is a young impact crater located approximately 180 km (265 km by road) north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, Australia.^[1] It is 170 metres in diameter and its age is estimated to be 5,400 ± 1,500 years based on the cosmogenic¹⁴C terrestrial age of the meteorite,^[2] placing it in the Holocene. The crater is exposed to the surface.^[3]

In 1937 Joe Webb, a shearer at Boxhole sheep station, took geologist Cecil Madigan to examine the crater. Madigan discovered nickel-bearing metallic fragments and iron shale-balls similar to those found at Henbury to the south of Alice Springs. A later search found additional meteoritic metal including an iron mass of 181 pounds (82 kg) ,^[4] now in the Natural History Museum, London.

References

1. Bevan, Alex; McNamara Ken (1993). Australia’s Meteorite Craters. Perth: Western Australian Museum. p. 15. ISBN 0-7309-5926-0.
2. Kohman T. P. and Goel P.S. 1963. Terrestrial ages of meteorites from cosmogenic ¹⁴C. In: Radioactive Dating, pp. 395–411. International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna.
3. "Boxhole". Earth Impact Database. University of New Brunswick. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
4. Mark, Kathleen (1987). Meteorite Craters. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press. p. 90. ISBN 0-8165-1568-9.

External links

• Particles around Boxhole meteorite crater."Meteoritics, Vol 8, No. 4. Dec 31, 1973" (PDF). Davos, Switzerland: Meteoritical Society. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
• Natural History Museum (Boxhole Meteorite)