Comparison of four meteorite penetration funnels in the Campo del Cielo crater field,Argentina |
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Authors: | Mario A VESCONI Shawn P WRIGHT Mauro SPAGNUOLO Robert JACOB Carlos CERRUTTI Luciana GARCIA Evangelina FERNANDEZ William A CASSIDY |
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Institution: | 1. Asociación Chaque?a de Astronomía, O.N.G.P.J. 2555, Resistencia, Chaco, Argentina;2. Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106, USA;3. Laboratorio de Tectonica Andina, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina;4. Department of Geology, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania 17837, USA;5. Department of Geology & Planetary Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15146, USA |
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Abstract: | Abstract– More craters may be discovered in the future, but as it is currently known, the Campo del Cielo crater field is 18 km long by 4 km at its widest point. Such a distribution of craters suggests that the parent meteoroid entered and traversed the atmosphere at a very low angle relative to horizontal. The crater field contains at least 20 small craters produced by the larger fragments of the parent meteoroid. Four of these are explosion analog craters and the rest are penetration funnels. During four field seasons, we have constructed topographic and magnetic maps of four of the penetration funnels as found, and then dug trenches across them to learn their original structures and recover meteorites preserved within them. Structures of these penetration funnels indicate very low angles of impact, i.e., 9–16° relative to horizontal. This supports the idea that the parent meteoroid traversed the atmosphere at a low angle. Data given here for the four penetration funnels include projectile masses, lengths, widths, depths, and estimates of impact angles and azimuths. One of the penetration funnels described here (No. 6) can almost be classified as an explosion analog crater. |
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