Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A scar on the earth's surface left from the impact of a meteorite.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun geology A pit-like structure created by an impacting meteoroid, asteroid or comet.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[astro– + Greek blēma, missile, wound (from ballein, to throw; see gwelə- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1963, from astro- +‎ Ancient Greek βλῆμα (blema, "wound from a missile")

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Examples

  • Another earthquake spot is on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, most interestingly just in a large meteorite impact structure ( "astrobleme") called Charlevoix.

    Signs of the Times 2009

  • Vredefort Dome, some 120 km southwest of Johannesburg and covering 30,111 ha, is a representative part of a larger meteorite impact structure (or astrobleme), which has a radius of impact of 190 km.

    Vredefort Dome, South Africa 2009

  • A comprehensive comparative analysis with other complex meteorite impact structures demonstrated that it is the oldest, the largest and the only example on earth providing a full geological profile of an astrobleme below the crater floor, thereby enabling research into the genesis and development of an astrobleme immediately post impact.

    Vredefort Dome, South Africa 2009

  • It provides the only mappable and restorable profile that illustrates the genesis and development of an astrobleme during the very short time after impact.

    Vredefort Dome, South Africa 2009

  • Only one astrobleme in Europe fit the description, a crater called the Ries that lay some 300 kilometers to the east, on the northern shore of the Danube River.

    The Golden Torc May, Julian, 1931- 1981

  • The structure called the Ries (or Rieskessel) is the subject of some controversy-one school of thought accepting it as an astrobleme, while another holds it to be the result of a cryptovolcanic explosion that brought to the surface "meteoritelike" materials.

    The Golden Torc May, Julian, 1931- 1981

  • Thus at the final crash, most of those meteoroids fell as one body, to form that gigantic astrobleme.

    The Earth Book of Stormgate Anderson, Poul, 1926-2001 1978

  • Her birth country lay not far inland, though sheltered from northerly winds and easterly waters -- the Kazan, Cauldron, huge astrobleme on the continent Rodna, a bowl filled with woods, farmlands, rivers, at its middle Lake Stoyan and the capital Zorkagrad.

    A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows Anderson, Poul, 1926- 1974

  • Dating back 2,023 million years, it is the oldest astrobleme found on earth so far, with a radius of 190km, it is also the most deeply eroded.

    Signs of the Times 2009

  • It is the world’s only structurally intact exposure of the basement, below the crater floor, of a very large astrobleme.

    Vredefort Dome, South Africa 2009

Comments

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  • Beautiful etymological underpinnings: Greek ástron + blêma, "starwound"

    July 12, 2008

  • The Yucatan narrates the birth

    Of changes for old Mother Earth.

    The pastoral scene

    Hides a vast astrobeme,

    The secret to dinosaur dearth.

    For a description of the Chicxulub crater and its relation to the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, see

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater

    May 26, 2017

  • I have a black eye and some cuts on my face after being hit by a football at the Australasian Gaelic Games finals last Sunday, so I'm calling it an astrobleme.

    October 11, 2017

  • The Irish, my ancestral race,

    Play ball at a furious pace.

    They kick and they dribble

    But, sure, there’s no quibble -

    You don’t catch the ball with your face.

    October 11, 2017

  • See, for pettiness' sake, solo: third verbal sense under Wiktionary.

    October 12, 2017

  • Alas, there’s no foe to be blamed,

    No noble defense to be claimed.

    A player defaced

    By a solo misplaced

    Abjectly admits he’s self-maimed.

    October 13, 2017