Al Hawi, a 4-km-wide impact structure in northern Saudi Arabia

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Authors

Abdulrahman Toonsi 

Abstract

The northern region of Saudi Arabia hosts several impact craters and structures. This paper describes the discovery of a 4-km-wide complex impact structure located in the paleozoic sedimentary rocks of northern Saudi Arabia 210 kilometers north east of the city of Tabuk. The impact structure is composed of a central peak displaying intense folding and shock metamorphism surrounded by an inner ring of mountains followed by a wider outer ring. The presence of shocked quartz displaying planar deformation features(PDFs) along with polymict breccia, micro-faults, steep folding and stratigraphic deformation suggests the structure was created by an extraterrestrial impact event.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31223/X5G42W

Subjects

Astrophysics and Astronomy, Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics, Planetary Geology, Planetary Sciences, The Sun and the Solar System

Keywords

New impact crater

Dates

Published: 2024-09-23 17:40

Last Updated: 2024-09-24 00:38

License

CC BY Attribution 4.0 International