Mistastin crater


Mistastin crater is a meteorite crater in Labrador, Canada which contains the roughly circular Mistastin Lake. The lake is approximately in diameter, while the estimated diameter of the original crater is. The age of the crater is calculated to be 36.4 ± 4 million years.

Formation and geology

Mistastin crater was created 36 million years ago by a violent asteroid impact. The presence of cubic zirconia around the crater rim suggests that the impact generated temperatures in excess of , the highest crustal temperatures known on Earth and produced global changes that lasted for decades after the impact.
Mishta-minishtikᐡ, the lake's arcuate central island, is interpreted to be the central uplift of the complex crater structure. The target rocks were part of a batholith composed of adamellite, mangerite and lenses of anorthosite. There are abundant shock metamorphic features exhibited in the rocks of the island. Planar deformation features, diaplectic glass, melt rocks, and shatter cones have been identified.