Cloud Creek crater
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5d/Flag_of_the_United_States_%2823px%29.png/23px-Flag_of_the_United_States_%2823px%29.png)
Cloud Creek crater is an impact crater in Wyoming, United States.[1] The crater is located in Natrona County, about 48 miles (77 km) northwest of Casper, near the center of a geological feature known as the Casper Arch.[2]: 445
The Cloud Creek structure is circular with a current diameter of about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi), and it is buried beneath about 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) of Mesozoic rocks.[2]: 445 The age of the structure is estimated to be 190 ± 20 million years, which means that it formed as the result of an impact during the early part of the Jurassic Period.[2]: 445 This impact feature is not exposed at the surface, but it is known only through wells drilled for oil and gas. First reported by Donald Stone,[3] Cloud Creek is a circular structure documented using several 2D reflection seismic lines of fair to good quality, gravity, magnetic and borehole data.[2] The structure has a central core of brecciated, fractured and faulted rocks uplifted up to 520 m relative to the normal stratigraphy outside the structure. The core is surrounded by an annular trough and a detached fault-bounded rim anticline. The rim anticline defines the 7 km diameter of the structure. The structure was compressed and upthrown during the Laramide compression. Morphometric parameters of the structure are consistent with known impact structures. The core is associated with a positive gravity anomaly. Magnetic data could not be interpreted.[2]
History
The first published report of the Cloud Creek Structure was in 1985.[4] However, an impact origin was probably first proposed sometime after 1973 by a Casper geologist named Jack Wroble[3]: 233 A total of ten wells have been drilled for oil and gas within the boundaries of the Cloud Creek structure between 1955 and 1999.[3]: 221–225 Two wells have been drilled with the central peak, four wells within the encircling skirt, and four through the outer rim structure.
References
- ^ "Cloud Creek on Earth Impact Database". Archived from the original on 2012-06-05. Retrieved 2011-10-02.
- ^ a b c d e Stone, Donald S. and Ann M. Therriault (2003). "Cloud Creek structure, central Wyoming, USA: Impact origin confirmed". Meteoritics & Planetary Science. 38 (3): 445–455. Bibcode:2003M&PS...38..445S. doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.2003.tb00279.x.
- ^ a b c Stone, Donald S. (1999). "Cloud Creek: A Possible Impact Structure on the Casper Arch, Wyoming". Mountain Geologist. 36 (4): 211–234. ISSN 0027-254X.
- ^ Love, J.D.; A.C. Christiansen (1985). Geologic map of Wyoming. U.S. Geological Survey.
External links
- Aerial Exploration of the Cloud Creek Structure
- v
- t
- e
- Impact crater
- Impact event
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/Pingualuit_aerial_2007.jpg/120px-Pingualuit_aerial_2007.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/Craterstructure.gif/120px-Craterstructure.gif)
- Acraman
- Amelia Creek
- Araguainha
- Beaverhead
- Boltysh
- Carswell
- Charlevoix
- Chesapeake Bay
- Chicxulub
- Clearwater East and West
- Gosses Bluff
- Haughton
- Kamensk
- Kara
- Karakul
- Keurusselkä
- Lappajärvi
- Logancha
- Manicouagan
- Manson
- Mistastin
- Mjølnir
- Montagnais
- Morokweng
- Nördlinger Ries
- Obolon'
- Popigai
- Presqu'île
- Puchezh-Katunki
- Rochechouart
- Saint Martin
- Shoemaker
- Siljan Ring
- Slate Islands
- Steen River
- Strangways
- Sudbury
- Tookoonooka
- Tunnunik
- Vredefort
- Woodleigh
- Yarrabubba
- Alvarez hypothesis
- Australite
- Breccia
- Coesite
- Complex crater
- Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary
- Cryptoexplosion
- Ejecta blanket
- Impact crater
- Impact structure
- Impactite
- Late Heavy Bombardment
- Lechatelierite
- Meteorite
- Moldavite
- Ordovician meteor event
- Philippinite
- Planar deformation features
- Shatter cone
- Shock metamorphism
- Shocked quartz
- Stishovite
- Suevite
- Tektite