Reconstructing the dimension of Dhala Impact Crater, Central India, through integrated geographic information system and geological records

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-1-2019

Department

Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences

Abstract

Dhala Crater, located in the Bundelkhand Craton of Central India, has been contemplated as a complex crater. Here we present the results from a detailed investigation of the morphology of the crater by integrating geoinformatics and subsurface geology. The syn- and post-impact litho-contact, considered as crater boundary, was generated using visual interpretation of imagery whereas the morphology of the crater was generated from borehole data using spatial interpolation. The surface of contact between the Dhala Formation and the melt breccia show a bowl shaped depression that is inferred to have formed through impact. Our observations on the absence of a Central Elevated Area (CEA) and the small diameter (2.96 km) of the crater point towards a simple impact crater. A mesa-like structure located at the centre of the crater, formerly contended as the CEA, is in fact a vestige of denudational processes acting on the Proterozoic sediments in the crater. We propose a 4-stage evolutionary history that envisages the formation of the crater: the first three represent the impact event and sedimentation whereas the fourth stage correlates with denudation and its remnants seen throughout the exposed Vindhyan sediments.

Publisher's Statement

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2019.07.006

Publication Title

Planetary and Space Science

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS