Seismic expression of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater: Structural and morphologic refinements based on new seismic data

GSA Special Papers 339
By: , and 
Edited by: B. O. Dressler and Virgil L. Sharpton

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Abstract

This work refines previous interpretations of the structure and morphology of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater on the basis of more than 1,200 km of multichannel and single-channel seismic reflection profiles collected in the bay and on the adjacent continental shelf. The outer rim, formed in sedimentary rocks, is irregularly circular, with an average diameter of ~85 km. A 20–25-km-wide annular trough separates the outer rim from an ovate, crystalline peak ring of ~200 m of maximum relief. The inner basin is 35–40 km in diameter, and at least 1.26 km deep. A crystalline(?) central peak, approximately 1 km high, is faintly imaged on three profiles, and also is indicated by a small positive Bouguer gravity anomaly. These features classify the crater as a complex peak-ring/central peak crater. Chesapeake Bay Crater is most comparable to the Ries and Popigai Craters on Earth; to protobasins on Mars, Mercury, and the Moon; and to type D craters on Venus.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Seismic expression of the Chesapeake Bay impact crater: Structural and morphologic refinements based on new seismic data
Series title GSA Special Papers
Series number 339
DOI 10.1130/0-8137-2339-6.149
Year Published 1999
Language English
Publisher Geological Society of America
Contributing office(s) Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
Description 16 p.
Larger Work Title Large meteorite impacts and planetary evolution; II
First page 149
Last page 164
Country United States
Other Geospatial Chesapeake Bay Crater
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