Patagonia Meteorite Impact Field Project

National Geographic Society/Waitt Grants

Helping qualified and experienced individuals launch the most difficult stage of a project—the search.

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About the Project

Currently there are only eight recognized meteorite impact fields on Earth.

Geologist and NGS/Waitt grantee Rogelio Daniel Acevedo thinks he may have found the ninth.

Using satellite imagery, aerial photographs, and field information, Acevedo and fellow geologists Jorge Rabassa and Juan Federico Ponce have identified what they believe is the largest impact field in the Southern Hemisphere. Their examination of the site, in a remote area of Argentine Central Patagonia called Bajada del Diablo (Devil’s Descent), suggests there could be a hundred enormous craters there, some measuring up to 1,600 feet (500 meters) across and 160 feet (50 meters) deep.

No meteorites have ever been found in the area. But Acevedo and his Patagonia Meteorite Impact Field Project team will travel to the region in October 2009 to do a detailed analysis of the site's geology for evidence of an impact.

For the initial phase of the project, the team will produce detailed cartography of the area and take systematic samplings in all craters and the non-impacted areas between them. The team will then study the impact structures and search for and analyze impacting rock fragments for geomorphology, stratigraphy, petrography, mineralogy, and geochemistry.