Mahuika crater was a hypothesized

impact crater An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact craters ...

named after the Māori god of fire. It was described as being about 20 ± 2 km (12.4 ± 1.2 mi) wide and over deep and on the

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

continental shelf at 48.3 South and 166.4 East, to the south of

The Snares The Snares Islands / Tini Heke, known colloquially as The Snares, is a group of uninhabited islands lying about 200 km south of New Zealand's South Island and to the south-southwest of Stewart Island / Rakiura. The Snares consist of the ma ...

. A 2017 survey of the purported site found no evidence supporting the existence of the crater.

Initial claims of discovery

The crater was reported and named by Dallas Abbott and her colleagues from the

Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory The Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) is the scientific research center of the Columbia Climate School, and a unit of The Earth Institute at Columbia University. It focuses on climate and earth sciences and is located on a 189-acre (64 h ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

.Abbott, D.H., A. Matzen, E.A. Bryant, and S.F. Pekar (2003)
Did a bolide impact cause catastrophic tsunamis in Australia and New Zealand?
'' Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. 35:168. Based on elemental anomalies, fossils, and minerals, which are interpreted to be derived from the impact, found in an

ice core An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet or a high mountain glacier. Since the ice forms from the incremental buildup of annual layers of snow, lower layers are older than upper ones, and an ice core contains ic ...

from the

Siple Dome Siple Dome () is an ice dome approximately 100 km wide and 100 km long, located 130 km east of Siple Coast in Antarctica. Charles Bentley and Robert Thomas established a "strain rosette" on this feature to determine ice movement in ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

, it is argued that the impact which created the Mahuika crater occurred around 1443 AD, but other sources have placed the date as 13 February 1491 AD. Some evidence suggests that the tsunami it caused was observed by Aboriginal Australians and entered into their oral traditions.

Doubts over existence

In 2010 a paper was published in ''Marine Geology'' which critically analysed Abbott's claims regarding the origin of the Mahuika crater. The researchers determined that there was no evidence to indicate a comet created the crater, and therefore the possibility of an impact causing the tsunami was highly unlikely. A 2017 survey by the

NIWA The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research or NIWA ( mi, Taihoro Nukurangi), is a Crown Research Institute of New Zealand. Established in 1992, NIWA conducts research across a broad range of disciplines in the environmental scien ...

research vessel, RV ''Tangaroa'', using a

multibeam echosounder A multibeam echosounder (MBES) is a type of sonar that is used to map the seabed. It emits acoustic waves in a fan shape beneath its transceiver. The time it takes for the sound waves to reflect off the seabed and return to the receiver is used ...

and a sub-bottom profiling system show no evidence for any crater-like feature in the position reported by Abbott and her colleagues. Instead, the site is typical flat continental shelf lying in 160 meters (528 ft) of water. Subsequent bathymetric data compilation and analysis, as part of The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project, shows no crater-life features on the continental shelf of southern New Zealand.

References

External links

Abstract of Geological Society of America talk by Andrew K. Matzen on tektites from Mahuika crater

2004 article disputing Mahuika impact origin of 15th century tsunami
Expedition hunts giant meteor
by S. Collins. Newspaper article about ongoing Mahuika impact research.

Initial claims of discovery

Doubts over existence

See also

References

External links

Further reading