Tsenkher
Key facts
- Country
- Mongolia
- Diameter
- 3.7 km
- Age
- about 5 million years
- Location
- 47.44° N, 101.77° E
A bowl about 3.7 km across in the dry steppe of central Mongolia, with a raised rim and a lobed apron of ejected debris around it.
Tsenkher is a young impact crater about 3.7 km across in the steppe of central Mongolia. It is famous for its unusually well-preserved blanket of debris, which looks remarkably like the lobed aprons around some craters on Mars.
What can be seen. The crater is a bowl with a raised rim. Around it, a sheet of material thrown out by the impact, the ejecta blanket, spreads outwards in tongues and lobes with a low ridge at the outer edge. On Mars, similar 'rampart craters' are thought to form when the impactor hits ground containing ice or water, so the ejecta flows like mud.
What it hit. The target was a mixture of sediments and older volcanic rocks.
Proof of impact. Geologists found quartz with planar deformation features, impact breccias and melt rock, which confirmed an impact in the 2000s.
Age. Dating of impact melt suggests an age of about 5 million years, in the Pliocene, with an uncertainty of about 1 million years.
Why it matters. Tsenkher is one of the best places on Earth to study how ejecta blankets form, and it helps scientists interpret craters on Mars. The impactor is unknown.
Visiting. The crater is remote and best visited with local guides.
Did you know?
Tsenkher's lobed debris apron resembles rampart craters on Mars.
It is about 5 million years old.
Its ejecta blanket is unusually well preserved.