LAGUNA GUATAVITA: NOT METEORITIC,PROBABLE SALT COLLAPSE CRATER

Laguna Guatavita (Colombia), a crater 700 m across and 125 m deep containing a central lake, appears not to be a meteorite crater as widely supposed. The tectonic style is not that of an impact site and there is no raised rim or ejected debris. We could find no impactite, shock metamorphic effects or shock fractures (shatter cones). Most likely it is a collapsed crater caused by the solution and withdrawal of salt from an underlying anticline