The Henbury Meteorite Craters 



Paul W. Hodge 



Among tlie many terrestrial craters now- 

 recognized as having been caused by meteoritic 

 inipai't, the remarkable group of craters near 

 the Henbury Homestead in central Australia is 

 of special interest. In size, shape, and degree 

 of erosion they illustrate almost all the features 

 of known meteorite craters. Because there is 

 so little published information on the Henbury 

 crat.ers, I attempted, while carrying out a study 

 of meteoritic delms in the soil around them, to 

 obtain a series of useful photographs of the 

 craters and surrounding region. The publica- 

 tion of sonu> of these photographs in the present 

 form is desirable for three reasons. First, the 

 increased interest in the general subject of me- 

 teorite craters has captured a large new au- 

 dience wiio may find these photographs useful; 

 second, the photographs may be used in con- 

 nection with past pictures, such as the unpub- 

 lished set made by Bedford in 1931, and future 

 photographs to establish the amount and rate of 

 erosion in order to estimate the age of the 

 craters; third, the rapidly increasing number of 

 visitors to the craters makes it advisable that a 

 permanent record of tlieir present condition be 

 made. Approximately 50 groups now visit the 

 location of the craters each year; most of these 

 are local people or tourists. The fast-growing 

 tourist industry in the area suggests that tour 

 buses may soon bring much larger numbers of 

 visitors. Such a situation may result in the 

 accidental alteration of some of the features of 

 the craters. 



Location 



The Henbury meteorite craters are located in 

 the heart of arid central Australia at latitude 



1 Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory; regularly at the Berkeley 

 Astronomical Department, University of California. 



24°:35' S and longitude 13:3°10' E. They lie 

 just north of a low linear range of hdls. Their 

 geological environment has been described by 

 Alderman (1932). At present they are best 

 reached by driving 80 miles from the city of 

 Alice Springs toward Adelaide, turning left oppo- 

 site the Henbury Station airstrip, and continu- 

 ing on a crude track f(U- 6 miles. The immediate 

 area around the craters has recently been set 

 aside as a government reserve. 



History of scientific work 



1031, May. — Acting on reports of local residents 

 that meteorites were to be found in tlie vicinity 

 of 3 to 5 craters near Henbury, A. R. Alderman 

 (1932) carried out the first scientiiic studj^ of the 

 Henbury meteorite craters. He discovered, 

 mapped, and described 13 craters, which ranged 

 in size from 9 to 200 meters. In addition to 

 making rough measurements of the diameters, 

 depths, and all heights of the ciaters, Alderman 

 also combed the entire area for meteorites and 

 meteoritic fragments. He found apjH-o.ximatelj^ 

 800 pieces of meteoritic material, whose weights 

 ranged from a few grams to 24 kilograms. He 

 bored one of the craters (no. 5) to a deptli of 8 

 feet and found no evidence for a large meteorite 

 there. 



1931, June. — Following Dr. Alderman's ex- 

 pedition, R. Bedford of the Kysincutta Museum 

 organized a party consisting of himself, his 

 brother W. Bedford, and B. Duggin, to explore 

 the craters. On their first visit Bedford's group 

 concentrated on finding meteoritic fragments on 

 the ground surrounding the craters. A total of 

 550 meteorites was collected; they ranged in 

 weight from 3 grams to 77.5 kilograms, totaling 

 146 kilograms. The results of the expedition 

 were never published, except as an addendum to 

 Alderman's paper, wTitten by Spencer. 



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