Burckle Crater is a hypothesized undersea crater that has been proposed by the Holocene Impact Working Group. They considered that it likely was formed by a very large scale and relatively recent (c. 2800-3000 BC) comet or meteorite impact event. It is estimated to be about 30 km (18 mi) in diameter,[1] hence about 25 times larger than Meteor Crater.
Its proposed location is to the east of Madagascar and west of Western Australia in the southern Indian ocean. Its position was determined in 2006 by the same group using evidence of its existence from prehistoric chevron dune formations in Australia and Madagascar that allowed them to triangulate its location. But the theory that these chevron dunes are due to tsunamis has been challenged by geologist Jody Bourgeois; using a computer model to simulate a tsunami, she believes the structures are more consistent with aeolian processes.[2][3]
Burckle Crater lies at in the Indian Ocean and is 12,500 feet (3,800 m) below the surface.
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Burckle Crater has not yet been dated by radiometric analysis of its sediments. The Holocene Impact Working Group think that it was created about 5,000 years ago (c. 2800–3000 BC) during the Holocene epoch when a comet impacted in the ocean, and that enormous megatsunamis created the dune formations which later allowed the crater to be pin-pointed.
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