Boxhole is a young impact crater located approximately 180 km (265 km by road) north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is 170 metres in diameter and its age is estimated to be 5,400 ± 1,500 years based on the cosmogenic 14C terrestrial age of the meteorite,Kohman T. P. and Goel P.S. 1963. Terrestrial ages of meteorites from cosmogenic 14C. In: Radioactive Dating, pp. 395–411. International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna. placing it in the Holocene. The crater is exposed to the surface.
Description In 1937 Joe Webb, a shearer at Boxhole sheep station, took geologist Cecil Madigan to examine the crater. Madigan discovered nickel-bearing metallic fragments and iron shale-balls similar to those found at Henbury to the south of Alice Springs.Madigan, C. T., The Boxhole crater and the Huckitta meteorite (central Australia). Royal Society South Australia Transactions and Proceedings, v. 61, pp.187–190. 1937 It was the second impact crater to be described in Australia, after Henbury.Haines P.W. (2005). Impact cratering and distal ejecta: the Australian record. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, Volume 52, pp. 482 ' History of discovery an dinvestigations' Abstract A later search found additional meteoritic metal including an iron mass of 181 pounds (82 kg) ,Madigan, C.T. 1940. The Boxhole meteoric iron, central Australia, Mineralogical Magazine 25, 481-486 now in the Natural History Museum, London.
See also
List of impact craters in Australia
References
Further reading Cassidy, W. A., Descriptions and topographic maps of the Wolf Creek and Boxhole craters, Australia (abstract). French, B.M. and Short, N.M., eds., Shock Metamorphism of Natural Materials, Mono Book Corp., Baltimore, MD, p. 623. 1968 Shoemaker, E. M., Roddy, D.J., Shoemaker, C.S. and Roddy, J.K., The Boxhole meteorite crater, Northern territory, Australia (abstract). Lunar and Planetary Science XIX, pp. 1081–1082. 1988
External links Particles around Boxhole meteorite crater. Natural History Museum (Boxhole Meteorite)