Geophysical expression of the Meyers Crater, a new meteorite impact crater discovered in the Coolgardie Goldfield of Western Australia

Abstract

SummaryDetailed airborne electromagnetic (VTEM), gravity and passive seismic HVSR surveying, followed up by RC and diamond drilling, has identified an isolated circular and geologically young meteorite impact crater filled with sediments and located next to the town of Coolgardie in Western Australia. It was discovered in 2017 (Meyers, 2017), is 800 m in diameter and estimated to be >140 m deep based on passive seismic results, because only angled drilling was carried out for gold exploration along the western side of the crater. The crater has been filled with impact debris and sedimentary deposits to form a flat modern topographic feature. The pre-impact bedrock is Archean greenstone, which hosts numerous gold occurrences and mines surrounding the crater. The crater is filled with a polymict impact breccia of mixed greenstone rocks from below and surrounds near its base. A thin (<2 m) tuffaceous looking ejecta layer occurs at the boundary between the impact breccia and underlying in situ brecciated greenstone bedrock (high Mg basalt and ultramafic lava). This transition zone is also imaged as two “bedrock” layers in passive seismic HVSR cross-sections. The impact breccia is overlain by a very thick deposit of anoxic peat and carbonised wood fragments containing framboidal pyrite, as well as slump blocks of greenstone rocks, starting from over 120 m deep to a depth of 14 m from surface, where this organic layer is capped by a fine clay deposit, which was likely transported into the crater after its raised rim was breached by erosion. The crater and its fill deposits cannot explain the entire circular gravity anomaly low of -5mGal, and the brecciated in situ greenstone bedrock around and below the crater is modelled to contribute to the gravity anomaly low. It is estimated that the meteorite projectile was about 40 m in diameter, came from an easterly trajectory, and impacted Coolgardie between the Miocene to Pleistocene, with age dating and Ir analysis of the impact layer and overlying plant material soon to be carried out. A high-resolution ground magnetic survey using 10 m line spacing was carried out to try and detect large iron meteorite fragments, but only a weak and diffuse anomaly pattern occurs at the crater centre, indicating that the meteorite was highly fragmented on impact and/or later demagnetised by weathering. A vertical diamond drillhole down the centre of the crater is required to properly study this relatively young impact structure and analyse the preserved plant material filling the crater over a vertical column of 100 m or more, continuously recording local environmental changes over a considerable time period.