Help Identify

[Clarry]

Hi folks, I was on Google Maps checking out some places I've visited over the years when I found this circular area up near the NT/QLD border. It seems to be suspiciously round & barren but surrounded by trees. Probably a dried up waterhole but just wondering what you think. The co-ordinates are -19.955515,137.902289
Here are a couple of screenshots I took.
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s142/Zempire_bucket/Capture333copy.jpg
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s142/Zempire_bucket/Capture222copy.jpg

[Kunama]

Looks like an ancient impact site, sure is nothing like the surroundings area.

[Matt Wastell]

Hi Clayton
Looks like a crater - but it could be other things like you mentioned - I am sure it will be correctly identified.......field trip?

[GrahamL]

looks natural to me :shrug: the geography around it does look like a bit of a catchment .

[light matter]

It does look suspiciously like an impact! You might try Robin Williams of the ABC science unit or Stuart Garry of StarStuff, I remember one of them (Stuart, I think) interviewed a scientist from WA Uni, who goes out and investigates possible sites like this looking for crystallized spray / burn patterns in the surrounding rocks.

Rob

[Scorpius51]

Try sites such as this one as a start http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_impact_craters_in_Australia .

Cheers
John

[Clarry]

Thanks for the wiki list link Scorpius51. It's not listed there, although there is another close by. Probably nothing in it.

[Baddad]

I had a look at it on google maps. The bushes/trees around it indicates its a dried waterhole.

Certainly has some impact features. I find that the photos are inconclusive but interesting.

Cheers

[Baddad]

Its definitely a dried waterhole.
There are livestock tracks radiating from it.
What I find interesting are the dark patches around it. They don't appear anywhere else nearby. Except a hundred metres South. Another patch.

Why is the hollow there?

Cheers

[Blue Skies]

You really need to get out and do some geology on the area before it can be confirmed. Shocked quartz grains, shatter cones and/or shatter surfaces, breccia from the thrown out material as well as the glassy melt (I've forgotten the name!) that forms in cracked rocks and in some cases minute diamonds are all signs of an impact. Without at least one of these as hard proof it will likely remain a 'maybe'.

[alocky]

That looks a bit small to have shatter cones, cristobalite, impact breccia or any of the usual high energy features. The only way to prove that one would be to dig up a chunk of the meteorite. There's a chap at Geoscience Australia called Andrew Glickson who spends most of his spare time chasing these sorts of things down and is probably the foremost authority in this country on them.
There's plenty of other good geological reasons for there to be a dried up waterhole there, but without an experienced pair of eyes on site, it's anybody's guess.
cheers,
Andrew