Odessa
Key facts
- Country
- United States
- Diameter
- 168 m
- Age
- about 63,500 years (poorly known)
- Location
- 31.76° N, 102.48° W
A shallow bowl about 170 m across on the plains south-west of Odessa, Texas, with a low rim of upturned limestone. A small museum and a trail explain the site.
The Odessa crater, in west Texas in the United States, is a small impact crater about 168 m across made by an iron meteorite. It is the second meteorite crater recognised in the United States, after Meteor Crater in Arizona, and it is open to visitors.
What can be seen. Today the crater is only a few metres deep, because wind-blown sand and soil have almost filled it. When it formed it was probably about 30 m deep. The rim is a low ridge where layers of Cretaceous limestone and sandstone were bent upwards and folded back by the blast. Several much smaller craters lie nearby, made by smaller pieces of the same meteorite.
The meteorite. Thousands of fragments of iron meteorite, mostly small, have been found around the crater. The meteorite is a coarse octahedrite of the IAB group, a family of iron meteorites that often contain small silicate inclusions. Discovery and digging. The first meteorite was found in 1922, and the crater was described in 1927. Between 1939 and 1941 a deep shaft was dug in the centre, looking for a large buried mass of iron. None was found, because, as at Meteor Crater, the main meteorite mostly vaporised or shattered on impact. The digging did reveal the crater's original shape beneath the fill.
Age. The age is uncertain. Dating of the sediments in and around the crater suggests it formed roughly 63,500 years ago, in the late Pleistocene, but estimates vary.
Visiting. The site is a National Natural Landmark with a small museum. Collecting is not allowed at the crater; elsewhere, always ask landowners' permission.
Did you know?
A shaft dug between 1939 and 1941 found no buried meteorite, only the crater's original floor.
The crater was probably about 30 m deep when it formed, but is now almost filled with sediment.
Several smaller craters nearby were made by other fragments of the same iron.