Tookoonooka is a large
meteorite
A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...
impact crater (astrobleme) situated in
South West Queensland,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. It lies deeply buried within
Mesozoic
The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...
sedimentary rocks of the
Eromanga Basin and is not visible at the surface.
Description
Tookoonooka was discovered using
seismic data collected during routine
petroleum exploration and first reported in a publication in 1989,
[Gorter J.D., Gostin V.A. & Plummer P. 1989. The Tookoonooka Structure: an enigmatic sub-surface feature in the Eromanga Basin, its impact origin and implications for petroleum exploration. In: O’Neil B.J. (editor) The Cooper and Eromanga Basins, Australia: Proceedings of the Cooper and Eromanga Basins Conference, Adelaide, 1989, pp. 441–456. Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SA Branches).] with proof of the impact theory coming from the discovery of
shocked quartz
Shocked quartz is a form of quartz that has a microscopic structure that is different from normal quartz. Under intense pressure (but limited temperature), the crystalline structure of quartz is deformed along planes inside the crystal. These pla ...
in drill core.
[Gostin V.A. & Therriault A.M. 1997. Tookoonooka, a large buried Early Cretaceous impact structure in the Eromanga Basin of southwestern Queensland, Australia. Meteoritics and Planetary Science 32, 593–599]
Abstract and full PDF
/ref> Estimates of the crater diameter range from to .Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...
Cadna-owie Formation, the age of which is variously estimated at being between 123 and 133 Ma,[Gorter J.D. 1998. The petroleum potential of Australian Phanerozoic impact structures. APPEA Journal 38, 159–187.] Tookoonooka is associated with several small oil fields.
Talundilly crater
The seismic data reveal a similar nearby structure of the same age referred to as Talundilly.[Longley I.M. 1989. The Talundilly anomaly and its implications for ]hydrocarbon exploration
Hydrocarbon exploration (or oil and gas exploration) is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for deposits of hydrocarbons, particularly petroleum and natural gas, in the Earth using petroleum geology.
Exploration methods
Vis ...
of Eromanga astroblemes. In: O'Neil B.J. (editor) The Cooper and Eromanga Basins, Australia: Proceedings of the Cooper and Eromanga Basins Conference, Adelaide, 1989, pp. 473–490. Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SA Branches) Although it seems likely that Tookoonooka and Talundilly are paired impact craters, proof that the latter is of impact origin is not possible without drilling. Another proposed paired impact craters are the larger West and East Warburton Basin structures in the nearby state of South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
.World's largest asteroid impact zone found in Australia: Meteorite broke in two, leaving two craters each 200 km across
Mar 24, 2015
See also
*
Cooper Basin
The Cooper Basin is a Permian-Triassic sedimentary geological basin in Australia. The basin is located mainly in the southwestern part of Queensland and extends into northeastern South Australia. It is named after the Cooper Creek which is an ...
*
East Warburton Basin
The East Warburton Basin in South Australia is the site of a hypothesised large impact crater of the Carboniferous period (around 360-300 million years ago). The subterranean structure lies buried at a depth of ~4 km, and measures a minimu ...
References
{{Impact cratering on Earth
Impact craters of Queensland
Cretaceous impact craters
Cretaceous Australia
Aptian Stage
Barremian Stage
Hauterivian Stage