Santa Fe impact structure

{{Infobox terrestrial impact site

| name = Santa Fe impact structure

| other_name =

| photo = Kluft-photo-Shatter cones-Sep-2008-Img 1711.jpg

| photo_size =

| photo_alt =

| photo_caption = Shatter cones at the side of Highway 475 in the Santa Fe impact structure

| location = Sangre de Cristo Mountains

| map = New Mexico

| map_alt =

| map_caption = Location of Santa Fe impact structure in New Mexico

| map_size =

| label_position =

| coordinates = {{coord|35.7281167|N|105.8642106|W|format=dms|display=inline,title}}

| coordinates_ref =

| confidence = confirmed{{Cite Earth Impact DB | name = Santa Fe | linkname = santafe | accessdate = 2017-10-01}}

| diameter = {{convert|6|km|mi}}-{{convert|13|km|mi}}

| age = less than 1.2 billion years

| exposed = no

| drilled = no

| bolide =

| topo =

| access = SR475 northeast of Santa Fe

| country = United States

| state = New Mexico

| district = Santa Fe County

| municipality =

}}

The Santa Fe impact structure is an eroded remnant of a bolide impact crater in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains northeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The discovery was made in 2005 by a geologist who noticed shatter cones in the rocks in a decades-old road cut on New Mexico State Road 475 between Santa Fe and Hyde Memorial State Park. Shatter cones are a definitive indicator that the rocks had been exposed to a shock of pressures only possible in a meteor impact or a nuclear explosion.{{cite book

| author = French, Bevan M.

| year = 1998

| title = Traces of catastrophe

| publisher = Lunar and Planetary Institute

| url = http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/books/CB-954/CB-954.intro.html

| access-date = 2008-12-31 }}

It is called an "impact structure" and not a crater because it is so deeply eroded. Current estimates place the age of the impact between 1.4 and 1.6 billion years. Only the crater's basement rocks remain on the surface in the mountains today. The estimated diameter of the original impact crater is {{convert|6 to 13|km|sigfig=1|sp=us}}.{{cite journal |last1=Fackelman |first1=Siobhan P. |last2=Morrow |first2=Jared R. |last3=Koeberl |first3=Christian |last4=McElvain |first4=Thornton H. |title=Shatter cone and microscopic shock-alteration evidence for a post-Paleoproterozoic terrestrial impact structure near Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA |journal=Earth and Planetary Science Letters |date=June 2008 |volume=270 |issue=3–4 |pages=290–299 |doi=10.1016/j.epsl.2008.03.033|bibcode=2008E&PSL.270..290F }} The shatter cones occur for about 1 mile (1.6 km) along the highway, which is interpreted to coincide with a central area within a crater of greater diameter.{{cite conference

| first = S.P.

| last = Fackelman

|author2=T. H. McElvain |author3=J. R. Morrow |author4=C. Koeberl

| title = Shatter Cone Exposures Indicate a New Bolide Impact Structure near Santa Fe, New Mexico

| book-title = Lunar and Planetary Science XXXVIII

| publisher = Lunar and Planetary Institute

| year = 2007

| url = http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2007/pdf/1207.pdf

| access-date = 2008-12-31 }}{{cite conference

| first = E. L.

| last = Tegtmeier

|author2=H. E. Newsom |author3=W. E. Elston |author4=T. H. McElvain