Impact Craters in South America

ACEVEDO, ROGELIO DANIEL; ROCCA, M.C.L.; PONCE, J.F.; STINCO, S.

SPRINGER

Año: 2015 p. 104

978-3-319-13092-7

In  this  extensive  and exhaustive  catalogue  we  are  going to  report  all the  geological structures whichhave been mentioned or suggested as impact craters. We are going to give information about the well stated and very well confirmed, the possible ones andeven about many of the doubtful or rejected structures.Itis the intention of this new and updated catalogue to show to our colleague geologists absolutely all the published information concerning impact cratersand structures of this large and vastly unexplored continent of South America.Only after continued research and detailed field work, local geologists cantransform a "possible" impact structure into a well stated and confirmed impact crater site. Future investigations may yet produce evidence ofshock metamorphism or other diagnostic features at some of these structures.Therefore, we assume that many of today´s "possible" impact structures of South America will be, undoubtedly, the "new well confirmed impact structures"of the future. In our opinion, in the absence of meteorite remains or proof of shock metamorphism, geological evidence can prove the existence of an impact site and support these interpretations.Accordingly, we believe that it is important to mention all these sites to give the chance to future geologists to do research and work on them to solve the mysteries concerning their impact origin. To our knowledge, there is still only one published review paper devoted to all the reported impact craters/structures of South America.A total of around eighty proven, suspected and disproven sites have been identified in thecontinent, by different means and sources.Many structures still remain without a clear confirmation and some oft hem could be even rejected. Brazil and, to a lesser extent, Argentina are leading the list containing almost all known astroblemes. Contrarily, only a few of them have been identified in Bolivia, Perú, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela. Other countries (Guyana, Suriname and Paraguay) have not provided yett he discovery of any of these structures. In the rest of South American countries impact structures have not been identified so far.