The Tookoonooka marine impact horizon, Australia: Sedimentary and petrologic evidence

Abstract

Abstract– Ejecta from the large subsurface Tookoonooka impact structure have been found in the Lower Cretaceous strata of the extensive Eromanga Basin of central Australia. Observations from 31 wells spanning 400,000 km2 of the basin provide compelling evidence for the presence of a marine impact horizon of regional extent. Drill core was examined to determine the sedimentary context of the Tookoonooka impact event, the presence of ejecta, and the nature of the impact horizon. The base of the Wyandra Sandstone Member of the Cadna‐owie Formation is an unconformity commonly overlain by very poorly sorted sediment with imbricated pebbles, exotic clasts, and occasional boulders. The basal Wyandra Sandstone Member is bimodal: a fine sand mode reflects an ambient sediment contribution and a coarse mode is interpreted to be impact‐derived. Wells Thargomindah‐1 and Eromanga‐1, within four crater radii of Tookoonooka, contain distinctive clast‐supported breccia‐conglomerate beds at the base of the Wyandra Sandstone Member. Clasts in these beds include altered accretionary and melt impactoclasts, as well as lithic and mineral grains corresponding to the Tookoonooka target rock sequence, including basement. Petrographic evidence includes shock metamorphosed quartz and lithic grains with planar deformation features. These breccia‐conglomerates are in stark contrast to the underlying, laterally persistent, unimodal Cadna‐owie sediments and overlying shales deposited in an epeiric sea. The base of the Wyandra Sandstone Member is therefore interpreted to be the Tookoonooka impact horizon. The timing of the impact event is confirmed to be the Barremian‐Aptian boundary, at 125 ± 1 Ma. The Wyandra Sandstone Member preserves both impact ejecta and postimpact marine sediments.