Vepriai crater

Vepriai is the largest impact crater in Lithuania, named after the town of Vepriai located at its center. The crater is not exposed to the surface, having been eroded and covered by sedimentary rocks during the last glacial period.

Alleged boundaries of the crater are marked by a dotted line

Vepriai crater is 8 km (5.0 mi) in diameter and its age is estimated to be greater than 160 ± 10 million years (Upper Jurassic or earlier). The meteorite struck soft sandstone and limestone rocks thus its initial depth exceeded 500 m (1,600 ft) but the site was soon covered by sedimentary rocks, sand and clay. A small lake has formed in the Jurassic period in the impact site.[1]

The crater was reported in 1978, as proven by occurrence of shatter cones and impact glass in drill-core samples acquired during a geophysical research of the locality.

References
  1. "Vepriai". Earth Impact Database. Planetary and Space Science Centre University of New Brunswick Fredericton. Retrieved 2009-08-20.
  • (in Russian) Masaitis, V. L., Danilin, A.N., Maschak, M.S., Raykhlin, A.I., Selivanovskaya, T.V. and Shadenkov,Ye.M., The Geology of Astroblemes. Leningrad, Nedra, 231 p. 1980.
  • (in Lithuanian) Motuza, G. B., Gailius, R. P., On presumed astroblemes of Latvia (abstract). 7th Annual Conference of the Committee on Tectonics of Belarus and the Baltic Area, Vilnius, pp. 91–94. 1978.
  • (in English) Henning Dypvik1 et al., Impact structures and events - A Nordic perspective, Episodes, vol. 31 No. 1, March 2008 (PDF)

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