Dating of the Reo site (Island of Saaremaa, Estonia) with silicate and iron microspherules points to an exact age of the fall of the Kaali meteorite

Abstract

Pollen analyses and radiocarbon dates from the bottom sediments in the Kaali main crater suggested that the crater group is at least 4000-5000 years old. Investigations of silicate impact microspherules in surrounding mires (Raukas et al. 1995) put the age about 7500-7600 yr BP. Recently we found both silicate and iron microspherules from organic sediments below well-dated beach ridge in Reo site what supports the conclusions that the most realistic age of the Kaali craters is 7600±50 14 C BP (8335-8537 cal BP) and the meteorite fall was from SSE to NNW.Keywords: silicate and iron microspherules, meteorite fall, meteorite craters, radiocarbon and OSL dates.

Dating a small impact crater: An age of Kaali crater (Estonia) based on charcoal emplaced within proximal ejecta

“…) and the Reo gravel pit (Moora et al. ), and considerably older than proposed ages (800–400 BCE) of the Kaali based on detecting a meteoritic signal within the Piila bog (Rasmussen et al. ; Veski et al.…”

“…) or iron‐nickel spherules (Moora et al. ) and Kaali has not been established. An association between them and the crater is based on geographical proximity of the impact site with the Piila bog (~10 km) and Reo gravel pit (~7.5 km).…”

“…; Raukas and Stankowski ; Moora et al. ), “middle” Kaali ~1750–1500 BCE (Aaloe ; Kessel ; Saarse et al. ; Veski et al.…”

“…), or iron microspherules in an organic‐rich layer of the Reo gravel pit 6400 BCE (Moora et al. ). However, the source of the foreign material within those layers was never unequivocally connected with the Kaali crater.…”

“…In some cases (e.g., Moora et al. ) the age estimate of the crater can slightly vary from the age of the individual samples mentioned in Table .…”