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The Waqf as Suwwan crater, Eastern Desert of Jordan: aspects of the deep structure of an oblique impact from reflection seismic and gravity data

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Abstract

The deeply eroded Waqf as Suwwan ring structure was recently discovered to be a large impact, the first identified in the near east. Large-scale reflection seismic structure shows the impact situated high on the northeastern flank of the Jordan Uplift slo** into Wadi Sirhan Basin. If exhumation is linked to the Arabia–Eurasia collision, a likely time window for the impact event may be latest Eocene to Late Oligocene. Impact into a shallow sea seems an optional scenario. Old reflection seismic lines offer limited insight into the deep structure of the rim and part of the central uplift of the complex crater. An important structural clue is provided by a well-resolved seismic horizon of a yet tentative correlation with a Paleozoic black shale. The central gravity high is compatible with a mass surplus by the uplift of denser Paleozoic basement below the central uplift. The gravity model further indicates a ring of dense Paleozoic sediments rising from below into the ring syncline. Seismics show presumably radial synclines in the central uplift which are interpreted by centripetal constrictional flow during crater collapse. Beneath the final crater’s outer boundary, a shallow-dip normal fault zone, subtle seismic structure in uncollapsed footwall segments reveal an asymmetry of strain. The asymmetry is attributed to the cratering flow by an oblique impact directed toward NE. The finding provides independent support to an earlier suggestion of impact obliquity based on vergency of folds exposed on the central uplift.

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Acknowledgments

THs thanks DAAD for financial support, the University of Jordan, Dept. of Geology, for great hospitality, and Martin Sauter, Göttingen, for continuing interest. Thanks are extended: first and foremost to Eng. Khalil Konsul, Amman, for his help in retrieving the geophysical data; to the Ministry of Higher Education/Scientific Research Fund/Jordan for financial support of the project; to the NRA, Amman, in particular geophysicist Jamal Khataibeh for release of data. Discussions of early results with Uwe Reimold (MfN, Berlin), Thomas Kenkmann (Uni-Freiburg) were stimulating for newcomers to “impactology,” Critical reviews by Jeffrey Plescia (Johns Hopkins), Kai Wünnemann (MfN, Berlin) and an anonymous reviewer are gratefully acknowledged.

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  1. Applied Geology, Geoscience Center, Georg-August University, 37077, Goettingen, Germany

    Till Heinrichs

  2. Faculty of Science, University of Jordan, Amman, 11942, Jordan

    Elias Salameh & Hani Khouri

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Heinrichs, T., Salameh, E. & Khouri, H. The Waqf as Suwwan crater, Eastern Desert of Jordan: aspects of the deep structure of an oblique impact from reflection seismic and gravity data. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 103, 233–252 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-013-0930-4

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