Wikimapia is a multilingual open-content collaborative map, where anyone can create place tags and share their knowledge.

Araguainha Impact Crater | geology, astrobleme, natural monument

Brazil / Mato Grosso / Alto Araguaia /
 geology, astrobleme, natural monument
 Upload a photo

The Araguainha Crater or Araguainha Dome is an impact crater on the border of Mato Grosso and Goiás states, Brazil, between the villages of Araguainha and Ponte Branca. With a diameter of 40 kilometres (25 mi), it is the second largest known impact crater in South America, and possibly the oldest one.

The crater was formed 244.40 ± 3.25 million years ago in the Triassic period, when the region was probably a shallow sea. The date is actually quite close to the Permian/Triassic boundary, one of the largest mass extinction events in Earth's history. The impact punched through Paleozoic sedimentary units belonging to the Paraná Basin formations, and exposed the underlying Ordovician granite basement rocks. It is estimated that the crater was initially 24 kilometres (15 mi) wide and 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) deep, which then widened to 40 kilometres (25 mi) as its walls subsided inwards.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   16°48'51"S   52°59'23"W
  •  27 km
  •  88 km
  •  138 km
  •  140 km
  •  146 km
  •  175 km
  •  247 km
  •  360 km
  •  442 km
  •  603 km
This article was last modified 9 years ago