“Great men are meteors that burn to light and impact the Earth…”
Napoleon
The Gawler Ranges are much less visited than the better known Flinders Ranges, but both are connected by a major event. Lake Acraman is a circular, ephemeral lake, in the northern Gawler Ranges. It is 20km in diameter and represents the bottom of an impact crater of a meteor strike. The meteor is estimated to be around 4km in size. The impact occured 580 million years ago. This date comes from the Flinders Ranges over 300km away, where extraterrestrial iridium debria
was deposited in the Ediacaran layer. Matching debri was identified in the Acraman crater site. The red layer in the exposed limestone strata of the Bunyeroo Gorge, represents the meteor debris ejected at the time of impact. The impact and subsequent debris load in the atmosphere would have been sufficent to have caused the extinction of all animal life on Earth. Luckily, primitive animal fossils appear in the Ediacara layer 550 million years ago. Both sites are worth the visit. #lifeonearth #letsmakelemonade
Pen Paint and Scalpel 