Luna Crater: India’s fourth Impact Crater in Rann of Kutch, Gujarat?

Abstract The Luna crater is a near-circular proposed impact structure within the low-lying, flat terrain of unconsolidated Holocene sediments of the Banni Plains of the Great Rann of Kutch, Gujarat. Detailed petrography including study of BSE images of thin sections of numerous iron-rich, glassy, vesicular impact melt fragments collected from the Luna crater, revealed an internal texture of dendritic iron oxides associated with high-reflectance metallic particles (pure Fe metal/Fe-Ni/alloys) within an amorphous glassy mixed composition silicate groundmass. The presence of the central depression, iron oxide dendrites, Fe-Ni metal, lechatelierite and the anomalous occurrence of siderophile impactor relevant elements Ni, Cr and PGE’s (Ru, Pd, Ir and Pt values of 92,5,22 and 8 ppb) in Quaternary sediments and the textural similarity of melt fragments with spherules/melts from several impact craters, are considered to be evidence for an impact origin of Luna Structure.