Wilkes Land crater
impact crater
Wilkes Land crater is a hypothesized giant impact structure beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet in Wilkes Land, East Antarctica. The hypothesis is based on indirect geophysical observations, especially regional gravity anomalies and subglacial topography. It remains unconfirmed because the site is buried under ice and there are no direct bedrock samples to test for diagnostic impact evidence.
The name is used in connection with two candidate features discussed in published sources. The Wilkes Land anomaly refers to a general, large-scale gravity anomaly associated with a subglacial depression that has several proposed origins, including an impact structure. The Wilkes Land mascon refers to the specific positive gravity signal, a mascon, inferred from satellite gravimetry (including GRACE) and interpreted by some authors as consistent with a large impact basin.
Wilkes Land anomaly
A giant impact crater beneath the Wilkes Land ice sheet was first proposed by Richard A. Schmidt in 1962 on the basis of the seismic and gravity discovery of the feature made by the U.S. Victoria Land Traverse in 1959–60 (VLT), and the data provided to Schmidt by John G. Weihaupt, geophysicist of the VLT (Geophysical Studies in Victoria Land, Antarctica, Report No. 1, Geophysical and Polar Research Center, University of Wisconsin, 1–123). Schmidt further considered the possibility that it might be the elusive source of the tektites of the Australasian strewnfield (which is only 790,000 years old).
The hypothesis was detailed in a paper by Weihaupt in 1976.
The public source identifies “Wilkes Land crater” as impact crater. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Wilkes, Land and crater.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q141076. Authority coordinates are -70.000, 120.000. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1962, 1959 and 1976.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Wilkes Land crater” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.