HAVILAND IMPACT CRATER
by: Charles O’Dale
- Type: Simple
- Age: 20,000 ±2000 years (Geological dating)a
- Diameter: 0.01 km
- Location: N 37° 34’ 57″ W 99° 09’ 49″
aBased on the terrestrial age of the associated Brenham pallasite meteorite found in the crater (Honda et al. 2002).
Further Notes on the Excavation of the Haviland, Kiowa County, Kansas, Meteorite Crater
H. H. NININGER.
Abstract: The excavation of the Haviland, Kiowa County, Kansas, meteorite crater in 1933 has been described in a paper published in the Proc. Colo. Mus. Nat. Hist., 12, No.3, pp. 9-15, 1933. This report contained an account of the distribution of the meteorite fragments within the crater. These were found to occur in a funnel shaped formation, the smaller fragments peripherally toward the surface of the ground, and the larger ones nearer the center at the bottom of the funnel. This arrangement was interpreted as evidence of an explosion of the meteorite or of the air trapped between it and the soil at the instant of, or just before, the impact. The present paper presents the work of excavation, and reports new findings in the soil of the region surrounding the crater. The new findings consist of a deposit of numerous small concretionary masses, which on chemical test show a content of nickel. On breaking, these concretions are seen to be composed of ordinary soil grains cemented together by oxides of iron. In the center of each concretion is found a small blackish, or bluish-black, spot which apparently represents the altered remnants of the nickel-iron grain which was responsible for the formation of the nodule. These small masses were very numerous in certain areas investigated out to distances as great as a mile from the crater. (Delivered at the joint symposium of the S.R.M. and Section E of the A.A.A.S. on “Meteorite Craters,” at the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Society June, 1937.)
Particles in the Haviland crater consist of microscopic grains of oxidized meteoritic material chemically and mineralogically identical to the larger-scale oxide fragments found at the site, The Haviland crater itself has been completely destroyed by excavation and many years of subsequent cultivation, but meteorite fragments are still abundant at its local (Hodge 1979).
BRENHAM METEORITES IN KANSAS
20,000 years ago , Brenham meteorites impacted earth near what is now Haviland. The impact created the Haviland Meteorite Crater and is authenticated as a confirmed impact by the presence of rare, stony-iron (pallasite) meteorites (Sheila Knepper, Don Stimpson and Ellis Peck’s book Space Rocks and Buffalo Grass).
Cosmogenic nuclides in the Brenham Pallasite
M. Honda et al
December 2002
Abstract— Cosmic-ray-produced (cosmogenic) nuclides were studied in fragments of the Brenham pallasite, a large stony iron meteorite. The contents of light noble gases (He, Ne, and Ar) and long-lived radionuclides (10Be, 26Al, 36Cl, and 53Mn), produced by nuclear reactions with cosmic rays, were measured in the separated metal and olivine phases from numerous samples representing a wide range of shielding conditions in the meteoroid. The distribution of cosmogenic nuclide concentrations in the metal follows patterns similar to that observed in large iron meteorites. Shielding effects were estimated from the relative proportions of low- and high-energy reaction products. The production rates varied, from surface to interior, by a factor of more than several hundred. The 36Cl-36Ar cosmic-ray exposure age of Brenham is 156 ± 8 Myr. This determination is based on a multiple nuclide approach that utilizes cosmogenic nuclide pairs. This approach not only yields a “shielding independent” exposure age but also demonstrates that the production of cosmogenic nuclides occurred in a single stage. The depth profiles of 10Be in the stone phase and 53Mn in the metal phase are shown superimposed on corresponding profiles from the Apollo 15 long drill core. Surprisingly low abundances of lithophile elements, such as K, U, and Th, provided a unique opportunity to examine the production systematics of those nuclides whose inventories typically have significant contributions from non-cosmogenic sources, particularly radiogenic contributions. The U and Th contents of the olivine samples are extremely low, allowing detection of cosmogenic 4He production from oxygen, magnesium, silicon, and iron.
Sidenote:
The geology of the Haviland crater is similar to the Plevna structure (minus the meteorites).
References
[see – METEORITE]
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Hodge, P. W., Meteoritic material in the soil near two meteorite craters (abstract). Meteoritics, v. 14, pp. 422-423. 1979.
Hodge, P. W., The location of the site of the Haviland meteorite crater (abstract). Meteoritics, v. 14, pp. 233-234. 1979.
Honda M., Caffee M. W., Miura Y. N., Nagai H., Nagao K., and Nishiizumi K. 2002. Cosmogenic nuclides in the Brenham pallasite. Meteoritics & Planetary Science 37:1711-1728
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Nininger, H. H., Figgins, J. D., The excavation of a meteorite crater near Haviland, Kiowa County, Kansas. American Journal of Science, v. 28, pp. 312-313. 1933.
Nininger, H.H., Further notes on the Excavation of the Haviland, Kiowa County, Kanses, Meteorite Crater. Center for Meteorite Studies, Arizona State University, vol. 9, pp. 400-401. 1971.
Peck, E., The fate of a Kansas meteorite crater. Sky and Telescope, v. 58, pp. 126-128. 1979.
Snyder, F. G., Gerdemann, P. E., Explosive igneous activity along an Illinois-Missouri-Kansas axis. American Journal of Science, v. 263, pp. 465-493. 1965.
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