Silverpit crater

Silverpit Crater
Silverpit Crater


Silverpit crater is a buried sub-sea structure under the North Sea off the coast of the island of Great Britain. The 20 km (12 mi) crater-like form,[1][2] named after the Silver Pit—a nearby sea-floor valley recognized by generations of fishermen—was discovered during the routine analysis of seismic data collected during exploration for gas in the Southern North Sea Sedimentary Basin.

Its origin as a meteor impact structure was first proposed and widely reported in 2002.[1] It would be the first impact crater identified in or near Great Britain. Its age was proposed to lie somewhere in a 29-million-year interval between 74 and 45 million years (Late Cretaceous–Eocene).[3]

Other authors have disputed its extraterrestrial origin. An alternative origin was proposed in which the feature was created by withdrawal of rock support by salt mobility,[4] which was overwhelmingly judged to be more plausible in a 2009 debate held by the Geological Society of London.[5]

  1. ^ a b Stewart SA, Allen PJ (2002). "A 20-km-diameter multi-ringed impact structure in the North Sea". Nature. 418 (6897): 520–3. Bibcode:2002Natur.418..520S. doi:10.1038/nature00914. PMID 12152076. S2CID 4381323.
  2. ^ Stentor Danielson (2002). Unusually Well Preserved Crater Found in North Sea, National Geographic News, 31 July 2002
  3. ^ Stewart, S. A. & Allen, P. J. (2005). "3D seismic reflection mapping of the Silverpit multi-ringed crater, North Sea". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 117 (3): 354–368. Bibcode:2005GSAB..117..354S. doi:10.1130/B25591.1.
  4. ^ Underhill J.R. (2004). "Earth science: an alternative origin for the 'Silverpit crater'". Nature. 428 (6980): 280. Bibcode:2004Natur.428.....U. doi:10.1038/nature02476. PMID 15029895. S2CID 1110093.
  5. ^ "The Geological Society of London - Silverpit".