Explosion craters and penetration funnels in the Campo del Cielo, Argentina crater field.

WRIGHT, S. P; VESCONI M. A.; SPAGNUOLO, M. G; CERUTTI C.; JACOB R. W.; CASSIDY W.A.

League City, Estados Unidos.

Conferencia; Lunar and Planetary Science Conference XXXVIII; 2007

The Campo del Cielo, Argentina crater field (CdCcf) consists of at least 20 depressions and countless meteorite fragments localized in an ellipse (Figure 1) in the Chaco and Santiago del Estero Prov-inces of northern Argentina [1]. C14 age dating puts the impact event at ~4 ka [1].  Because they resulted from the same fall, we expect the major parameters of each impact crater, such as the  velocity, impact angle, azi-muth, and composition of the projectile, to be similar.  The loess target is also uniform over a wide area, leav-ing the mass of the impactor as the only significant vari-able between each crater  [1-3].  For each elongated penetration funnel, we can recover and weigh the projec-tile as well as estimate the azimuth and angle of impact.  Thus, the CdCcf is an excellent laboratory in which to reach general conclusions about natural craters in the range of impact parameters represented here.  The field occurrence is also interesting because it represents a mixture of both penetration funnels and explosion cra-ters. Fortuitously, these impact sites can help to bridge gaps that may exist in comparisons between impact ex-periments and much larger natural impacts which are an order of magnitude smaller and larger, respectively [3,4].