United States Meteorite Impact Craters

Des Plaines Crater, Illinois, is about 8km in diameter.  It is a buried structure with no surface expression.  The structure is less than 280 million years old.  It was discovered and described through drilling.

Evidence of Impact Origin

The impact origin of each location listed on this website has been supported by unambiguous diagnostic evidence of hypervelocity impact that has been reported in a scientific (usually peer reviewed) context.  Without such evidence, a geological structure is not a confirmed impact crater.  This section, which is included for each crater on this website, is not an exhaustive list of such published evidence, but is meant to demonstrate that appropriate work has been done for each listing.

• shatter cones
• planar deformation features in quartz (described)

Other significant evidence: morphology (from well logs and seismic), breccia.

Introduction

An impact origin for the Des Plaines structure was first proposed in Emrich and Bergstrom (1962).  The publication contains a general map of the structure, contextual maps of the region, a cross section, rough boughuer gravity map, and discussion of the available observations in terms of the emergent science of impact craters.  It renames the structure as a cryptoexplosion rather than cryptovolcanic structure.  The paper also records a central uplift displacement of about 600 to 900 vertical feet, a diameter of about 5 1/2  miles, and other general morphometrics.  An additional brief description of the structure and a more detailed description of its regional context can be found in Willman, 1971.

An impact origin was confirmed with the discovery of shatter cones and report of shock metamorphic features in quartz grains, reported by McHone et al., in abstracts from 1986 and 1987.  More details may be present in Peterson, 1989, and better maps may exist in a Master's Thesis published in 1974 by Langan.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES:

(If links to articles don't work, don't give up. Try pasting the link shown into a search engine or searching for the article authors, title, or other reference information.  If your research leads you to additional scientific references related to this crater, please help improve this resource by sending a note with the new citation(s) to: )

Buschbach T. C., Heim G. E. (1972) Preliminary geologic investigations of rock tunnel sites for flood and pollution control in the greater Chicago area: Illinois State Geological Survey Environmental Notes No. 52, pages 24-30.

Emrich, G. H., Bergstrom, R. E. 1962. Des Plaines disturbance, Northeastern Illinois. Geological Society of America Bulletin, v.73:959-968.

Langan, R. T. 1974. Structural analysis of the region near Des Plaines, Illinois using geophysical methods. Master's Thesis, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. 54 pp.

link not found

Langan R. T.; Speed R. C., 1973: Geophysical indication of pre-Upper Cambrian evaporite in N.E. Illinois and possible salt dome origin of the Des Plaines Disturbance. Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America Volume 5. No 7. p. 707

no link found

McHone, J. F., Sargent, M. L. and Nelson, W. J. 1986. Shatter cones in Illinois: Evidence for meteoritic impacts at Glasford and Des Plaines (abstract). Meteoritics, v. 21:446.

McHone, J. F., Sargent, M.L., and W. John Nelson, W.J., 1987, Shatter cones in Illinois; Evidence for meteoritic impacts at Glasford and Des Plaines: NASA Technical Memorandum 89810, p. 438.

McHone, J.F., Sargent, M.L., and Nelson, W.J., 1986, Shatter cones and other shock effects at Des Plaines, Illinois; Evidence for meteoroid impact [abstract]; Geological Society of America, 99th annual meeting: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 18, n. 6, p. 689.

no link found

McHone McHone, J.F., Sargent, M.L., and Nelson, W.J., 1986, Shatter cones in Illinois; Evidence for meteoritic impacts at Glasford and Des Plaines; Abstracts and program of the 49th annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society: LPI Contribution 600, p. G-3.

Pembertone R. H. 1953. Gravity survey of Des Plaines area. Master's thesis, University of Wisconsin. 62 pages.

Pemberton R. H. 1954. Gravity study of Des Plaines disturbance, Cook County, Illinois. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Madison, WI, United States (USA).

no link found

Peterson, G. L. 1991. Tarp Tunnel Explorations in the Des Plaines Disturbance, Illinois; Evidence Supporting an Impact Origin. Proceedings of the 34th Annual Meeting of Engineering Geologists, pp. 236-245.

no link found

Peterson, G.L., 1989, TARP tunnel explorations in the Des Plaines Disturbance, Illinois; Evidence supporting an impact origin: Proceedings, Chicago Association of Engineering Geologists Annual Meeting, p. 225–245.

no link found

Snyder, F. G., Gerdemann, P. E. 1965. Explosive igneous activity along an Illinois-Missouri-Kansas axis. American Journal of Science, v.263:465-493.

Willman, H. B. 1971. Summary of the geology of the Chicago area: Illinois. Geological Survey Circular 460. 77 pp.