Cloud Creek crater

{{Short description|Impact crater in Wyoming}}

{{Infobox terrestrial impact site

| name = Cloud Creek crater

| other_name =

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| map = United States#Wyoming

| map_alt =

| map_caption = Location of Cloud Creek crater in Wyoming

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| location = Casper Arch

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| coordinates = {{coord|43|7|N|106|45|W|region:US-WY|display=inline,title}}

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| confidence = Confirmed

| diameter = {{convert|7|km|abbr=on}}

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| age = 190 ± 30 Ma
Early or Middle Jurassic or Late Triassic

| exposed = No

| drilled = Yes

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| country = {{USA}}

| state = Wyoming

| province = Natrona County

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}}

Cloud Creek crater is an impact crater in Wyoming, United States.{{Cite web |url=http://www.passc.net/EarthImpactDatabase/cloudcreek.html |title=Cloud Creek on Earth Impact Database |access-date=2011-10-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120605184555/http://www.passc.net/EarthImpactDatabase/cloudcreek.html |archive-date=2012-06-05 |url-status=dead }} The crater is located in Natrona County, about {{convert|48|mi|km}} northwest of Casper, near the center of a geological feature known as the Casper Arch.{{cite journal

| doi = 10.1111/j.1945-5100.2003.tb00279.x

| author = Stone, Donald S. and Ann M. Therriault

| year = 2003

| title = Cloud Creek structure, central Wyoming, USA: Impact origin confirmed

| journal = Meteoritics & Planetary Science

| volume = 38

| issue = 3

| pages = 445–455

| id =

| bibcode = 2003M&PS...38..445S

| doi-access = free

}}

{{rp|445}}

The Cloud Creek structure is circular with a current diameter of about {{convert|7|km|mi}}, and it is buried beneath about {{convert|1200|m|ft}} of Mesozoic rocks.{{rp|445}} The age of the structure is estimated to be 190 ± 20 million years, which means that it formed as the result of an impact during the early part of the Jurassic Period.{{rp|445}} This impact feature is not exposed at the surface, but it is known only through wells drilled for oil and gas. First reported by Donald Stone, Cloud Creek is a circular structure documented using several 2D reflection seismic lines of fair to good quality, gravity, magnetic and borehole data. The structure has a central core of brecciated, fractured and faulted rocks uplifted up to 520 m relative to the normal stratigraphy outside the structure. The core is surrounded by an annular trough and a detached fault-bounded rim anticline. The rim anticline defines the 7 km diameter of the structure. The structure was compressed and upthrown during the Laramide compression. Morphometric parameters of the structure are consistent with known impact structures. The core is associated with a positive gravity anomaly. Magnetic data could not be interpreted.