A 20-km-diameter multi-ringed impact structure in the North Sea

Most craters found on Earth are highly eroded, poorly preserved and only exposed on land. Here we describe a multi-ringed impact structure discovered in the North Sea from the analysis of three-dimensional seismic reflection data. The structure is 20km in diameter, and has at least ten distinctive concentric rings located between 2 and 10km from the crater centre. The structure affects Cretaceous chalk and Jurassic shales, and is well preserved below several hundred metres of post-impact Tertiary strata, which constrains its age to be 60-65Myr old. The formation of concentric ringed impact structures at this relatively small scale had not previously been thought possible, especially on the terrestrial planets. We have mapped the ring structures at a resolution of tens of metres both laterally and in depth, and show that the rings are fault-bounded graben structures, similar to fault arrays formed in low-strain-rate detachment tectonic settings. Strata deeper than 500m palaeodepth appear unfaulted, and we infer that the concentric ring structures may have accommodated post-impact extension towards the excavated crater, through detachment on weak layers within the chalk.