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the Kimberley, Western Australia

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East Kimberley cattle station, Western Australia source: Beef central

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A remote Geowonder

Wolfe Creek Crater was formed by a small meteorite crashing into the rock of the Kimberleys in north Western Australia some 300,000 years ago. At 875 metres across (and 60 deep) it is a minor blip compared to the 180km crater left over from the 10km wide dinosaur killer, but it still makes for a respectable feature, especially since its porous centre made of shattered rock concentrates such little rain water as there is, making it more vegetated than the surrounding terrain and hence clearly visible from the ground or up in orbit. Its recent creation means that erosion hasn't had much time to start effacing it either. Fragments of iron meteorite have turned up over the years, revealing the nature of the culprit.

First spotted by science in the 1940's during an aerial survey, it was known to the indigenous peoples as Kandimalal and represents the site where a rainbow snake emerged from the depths of the Earth to create the nearby Wolfe Creek (in turn named after a long dead prospector) after which the crater got its map name, though other legends recount that it is the Evenstar come to ground. Now the crater is a national park, but it also starred in the Wolf Creek horror movies in the last couple of decades.

For those of you who can't spot it on the sat pic, it's the round bullseye in the centre of the image...

Loz

Image credit: 1: Sentinel-2A/Esa 2: de:Benutzer:Kookaburra

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