Upheaval Dome, An Analogue Site for Gale Center

We propose Upheaval Dome in southeastern Utah as an impact analogue site on Earth to Mars Science Laboratory candidate landing site Gale Crater. The genesis of Upheaval Dome was a mystery for some time--originally thought to be a salt dome. The 5 km crater was discovered to possess shocked quartz and other shock metamorphic features just a few years ago, compelling evidence that the crater was formed by impact, although the structural geology caused Shoemaker and Herkenhoff to speculate an impact origin some 25 years earlier. The lithology of the crater is sedimentary. The oldest rocks are exposed in the center of the dome, upper Permian sandstones, and progressively younger units are well exposed moving outward from the center. These are Triassic sandstones, siltstones and shales, which are intruded by clastic dikes. There are also other clay-rich strata down section, as is the case with Gale Crater. There is significant deformation in the center of the crater, with folding and steeply tilted beds, unlike the surrounding Canyonlands area, which is relatively undeformed. The rock units are well exposed at Upheaval Dome, and there are shatter cones, impactite fragments, shocked quartz grains and melt rocks present. The mineral shock features suggest that the grains were subjected to dynamic pressures> 10 GPa.