Ragozinka
Key facts
- Country
- Russia
- Diameter
- 9 km
- Age
- about 46 ± 3 million years
- Location
- 58.73° N, 61.80° E
Nothing obvious: the crater is buried beneath forest on the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains, in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia.
Ragozinka is a buried impact crater about 9 km across on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains, in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia.
What it hit. About 46 million years ago, in the Eocene, an impactor struck a sequence of sedimentary and volcanic rocks of Palaeozoic age, folded during the building of the Urals. The area was then near the shore of a shallow sea, and the crater was soon filled with sediments.
Discovery and proof. The structure was found during geological exploration in the region. Drilling revealed breccias and impact rocks with shock features in quartz, confirming an impact.
Age. The sediments that filled the crater are of Eocene age, and the impact is dated to about 46 million years ago, with an uncertainty of a few million years.
Why it matters. Ragozinka is one of several impact craters formed in the Eocene, between about 50 and 35 million years ago, a period when a number of large impacts struck the Earth, including Popigai in Siberia and Chesapeake Bay in North America. The impactor is unknown.
Did you know?
Ragozinka lies on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains.
It formed in the Eocene, a period with several large impacts.
The crater was filled with sediments soon after it formed.