Evidence of a 12,800-year-old Shallow Airburst Depression in Louisiana with Large Deposits of Shocked Quartz and Melted Materials

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11310%2F25%3A10498970" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11310/25:10498970 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=BuhaiGCh2B" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=BuhaiGCh2B</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.14293/ACI.2025.0004" target="_blank" >10.14293/ACI.2025.0004</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Evidence of a 12,800-year-old Shallow Airburst Depression in Louisiana with Large Deposits of Shocked Quartz and Melted Materials

Original language description

We report evidence of a likely low-altitude cosmic airburst near Perkins, Louisiana, associated with semi-consolidated deposits containing abundant shocked quartz grains, a classical impact indicator, along with spherules, meltglass, and microbreccia. Analytical techniques employed on these materials include optical microscopy, the universal stage, electron microscopy (SEM, TEM, and STEM), cathodoluminescence, laser ablation (LA-ICP-MS), neutron activation (INAA), and radiometric dating. These analyses reveal that the deposits exhibit morphological and compositional similarities to known impact-related proxies. Radiocarbon dating and 40Ar/39Ar analyses constrain the likely age of deposition to between 30,000 and 10,000 calibrated years BP, with a concentration of dates clustering around 12,800 years BP (12,835-12,735 cal BP), coinciding with the age range of the Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB). Spherule and meltglass abundances, along with evidence of high-temperature mineral transformations, are consistent with the effects of a high-energy airburst or impact. Hydrocode modeling suggests that a touch-down airburst could plausibly account for the observed shallow depression, material dispersal patterns, and geochemical signatures. Our study suggests that a 300-m-long lake/depression at the Perkins site represents North America’s first identified YDB-age airburst crater.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_ost - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10505 - Geology

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA23-06075S" target="_blank" >GA23-06075S: Environmental changes caused by extraterrestrial impacts and volcanism: Evidence from lake sediments</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Airbursts and Cratering Impacts

ISSN

2941-9085

e-ISSN

2941-9085

Volume of the periodical

3

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

DE - GERMANY

Number of pages

47

Pages from-to

1-47

UT code for WoS article

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EID of the result in the Scopus database

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