Dhala
Key facts
- Country
- India
- Diameter
- 11 km
- Age
- about 1.7 to 2.1 billion years
- Location
- 25.30° N, 78.13° E
Little crater shape: farmland and low hills near the village of Dhala, Shivpuri district, Madhya Pradesh, with outcrops of impact breccia and melt rock.
Dhala is an ancient impact structure about 11 km across near the village of Dhala in Shivpuri district, Madhya Pradesh, central India. It is the largest known impact structure in South Asia.
What it hit. The impactor struck granite of the Bundelkhand Craton, one of the oldest parts of India, about 2.5 billion years old. The impact melted part of the target, forming impact melt rock, and shattered the rest into breccias. The structure was later covered by sedimentary rocks of the Vindhyan Supergroup, which protected it.
Discovery. Geologists mapping the area noticed unusual rocks that did not fit the local geology. Detailed study in the early 2000s found quartz with planar deformation features, impact melt rock and other shock features, which confirmed an impact.
Age. The impact must be older than the overlying sediments and younger than the granite it struck. It is thought to have happened between about 1.7 and 2.1 billion years ago.
Why it matters. Dhala is among the oldest known impact structures on Earth, and its covering of younger sediment shows how ancient craters can survive. The impactor is unknown.
Visiting. The area is farmland. Ask permission before exploring outcrops.
Did you know?
Dhala is the largest known impact structure in South Asia.
Sedimentary rocks covering the structure protected it for more than a billion years.
It may be about 2 billion years old.