Woodleigh, Southern Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia: history of discovery, Late Devonian age, and geophysical and morphometric evidence for a 120 km-diameter impact structure

Abstract

The discovery of the Woodleigh impact structure, first identified by R. P. Iasky, bears a number of parallels with that of the Chicxulub impact structure of K – T boundary age, underpinning complications inherent in the study of buried impact structures by geophysical techniques and drilling. Questions raised in connection with the diameter of the Woodleigh impact structure reflect uncertainties in criteria used to define original crater sizes in eroded and buried impact structures as well as limits on the geological controls at Woodleigh. The truncation of the regional Ajana – Wandagee gravity ridges by the outer aureole of the Woodleigh structure, a superposed arcuate magnetic anomaly along the eastern part of the structure, seismic-reflection data indicating a central > 37 km-diameter dome, correlation of fault patterns between Woodleigh and less-deeply eroded impact structures (Ries crater, Chesapeake Bay), and morphometric estimates all indicate a final diameter of 120 km. At Woodleigh, pre-hydrothermal shock-induced melting and diaplectic transformations are heavily masked by pervasive alteration of the shocked gneisses to montmorillonite-dominated clays, accounting for the high MgO and low K2O of cryptocrystalline components. The possible contamination of sub-crater levels of the Woodleigh impact structure by meteoritic components, suggested by high Ni, Co, Cr, Ni/Co and Ni/Cr ratios, requires further siderophile element analyses of vein materials. Although stratigraphic age constraints on the impact event are broad (post-Middle Devonian to pre-Early Jurassic) high-temperature (200 – 250°C) pervasive hydrothermal activity dated by K – Ar isotopes of illite – smectite indicates an age of 359 ± 4 Ma. To date neither Late Devonian crater fill, nor impact ejecta fallout units have been identified, although metallic meteoritic ablation spherules of a similar age have been found in the Canning Basin.