Shoemaker Crater is about 105 kilometres north-east of Wiluna.
This impact crater was formed some time between 500mya and 1.6bya, depending on which source you believe. At that time there were no plants, no animals and no fungi – only stromatolites. A very different planet from today. A 2600 metres wide asteroid hit outback Western Australia at a speed of 65,000 kilometres per hour, creating a 30 kilometres wide hole that was first identified as an impact crater in 1974.
It is estimated that the resulting explosion was the equivalent of 784 megatons (about 15 x larger than Tsar Bomba – the largest nuclear bomb ever detonated) and generated an 8.5 magnitude earthquake. The heat and thermal radiation would have destroyed any lifeforms for a 500 km radius.
The crater was named after Eugene Shoemaker (1928-1997) a US planetary geologist who was killed in a vehicle crash on the Tanami Track. His ashes were on the Lunar Prospector when it crashed into the moon and Shoemaker could legitimately be known as the ‘man in the moon’.
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- ROUTE FROM WILUNA TO SHOEMAKER CRATER
© 2022 Kim Epton
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