Matt Wilson
Key facts
- Country
- Australia
- Diameter
- 7.5 km
- Age
- less than about 1.4 billion years
- Location
- 15.50° S, 131.18° E
A round pattern of ridges about 7.5 km across in the remote Victoria River district of the Northern Territory.
Matt Wilson is an eroded impact structure about 7.5 km across in the Victoria River district of the Northern Territory, Australia.
What it hit. The impactor struck Proterozoic sedimentary rocks, mainly sandstones and siltstones, about 1.4 billion years old.
Proof of impact. Geologists found shatter cones, cone-shaped fractures produced by shock, and quartz grains with planar deformation features, which confirmed an impact.
Structure. The structure has a central uplift surrounded by a ring of folded and faulted rock. Erosion has removed the crater rim, leaving only the deeper parts exposed.
Age. The age is very poorly known. The impact happened after the rocks it struck were deposited, about 1.4 billion years ago.
Why it matters. Matt Wilson is one of several ancient impact structures in northern Australia whose crater shapes have long since vanished but whose shocked rocks remain. The impactor is unknown.
Visiting. The area is remote pastoral land. Ask permission before entering.
Did you know?
Matt Wilson's crater has been eroded away, but its shocked rocks remain.
It lies in the Victoria River district.
Its age is uncertain by hundreds of millions of years.