The Bateke Plateau Structure- A New Possible 7 Km Diameter Quaternary Meteorite Impact Structure In Gabon: A Remote Sensing Study

A 7 km diameter circular structure, called the Bateke Plateau Structure, has been identified on Landsat imagery of eastern Gabon, in a region dominated by Palaeogene to Neogene continental sedimentary rocks of the Bateke Plateau, which unconformably overlie cratonic Archaean basement. Processing of DEMs derived from SRTM radar imagery of the structure, using various radial shading algorithms, has demonstrated that the structure consists of two nested toroidal rings, with a ring-shaped depression between them. The outer toroid has a peak-to-peak diameter of 5.8 km, and a thickness of 1.3 km, yielding a maximum diameter of 7.1 km. It is separated by a deep moat from the inner toroid, which has a diameter of 1.4 km, and a thickness of 700 m. Such a structure is consistent with a complex impact structure containing a central peak-ring uplift, formed by meteorite or cometary impact. Other possibilities for forming such a ring structure are considered highly unlikely, given the setting of the structure in a thin continental sandstone sequence overlying an Archaean craton, and the absence of young igneous intrusions, diapiric structures, karst, or deformation features. The Bateke Plateau Structure is postulated as a post-Neogene (Quaternary) complex impact structure with a peak-ring central uplift, which, because of its degraded, eroded state, is likely to be Pleistocene rather than Holocene in age.