Tabun-Khara-Obo
Key facts
- Country
- Mongolia
- Diameter
- 1.3 km
- Age
- about 150 ± 20 million years
- Location
- 44.13° N, 109.65° E
A round, shallow bowl about 1.3 km across in the desert of the eastern Gobi, Mongolia, with a low rim.
Tabun-Khara-Obo is a small impact crater about 1.3 km across in the eastern Gobi Desert of Mongolia.
What can be seen. The crater is a shallow bowl with a low rim, standing out in the flat desert. Its floor is partly filled with sediment.
What it hit. The impactor struck a sequence of Palaeozoic rocks, including volcanic rocks and sediments, and possibly younger sediments above them.
Proof of impact. Geologists found breccia with shock features in quartz, including planar deformation features, which confirmed an impact. Some impact melt has also been described.
Age. The age is poorly known; it is usually estimated at about 150 million years, in the Late Jurassic, with an uncertainty of about 20 million years.
Why it matters. The dry climate of the Gobi preserves landforms well, and Tabun-Khara-Obo and Tsenkher show that Mongolia's deserts can hide well-kept craters. The impactor is unknown.
Visiting. The crater is very remote. Desert travel needs careful planning, local guides and plenty of water.
Did you know?
Tabun-Khara-Obo is a small bowl crater in the eastern Gobi Desert.
The dry climate of the Gobi has helped preserve it.
It may be about 150 million years old.