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Mistastin crater
Impact crater lake in Canada From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Mistastin crater is a meteorite crater in Labrador, Canada which contains the roughly circular Mistastin Lake.[3] The lake is approximately 16 km (9.9 mi) in diameter, while the estimated diameter of the original crater is 28 km (17 mi). The age of the crater is calculated to be 36.6 ± 2 million years (Eocene).[4]
The lake was first identified as a possible impact crater in 1968,[5][6] after being viewed from space.[7]
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Location
Mistastin crater, aka Kamestastin,[7] is located in northwestern inland Labrador, due west of Natuashish, near the Quebec border.[8] It lies within the traditional hunting grounds of the Mushuau Innu First Nation.[7] Although it is not within a declared reserve, it does require permission to visit.[7]
Formation and geology
Mistastin crater was created 36 million years ago by a violent asteroid impact.[9] The presence of cubic zirconia around the crater rim suggests that the impact generated temperatures in excess of 2,370 °C (4,300 °F) — roughly 43% that of the surface of the Sun and the highest crustal temperatures known on Earth[9] — and produced global changes that lasted for decades after the impact.
Mishta-minishtikᐡ, the lake's arcuate central island, is interpreted to be the central uplift of the complex crater structure. The target rocks were part of a batholith composed of adamellite, mangerite and lenses of anorthosite. There are abundant shock metamorphic features exhibited in the rocks of the island. Planar deformation features, diaplectic glass, melt rocks, and shatter cones have been identified.
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References
Further reading
External links
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