Universal Access. Send Email. Road access may be closed during the wet season usually October to April. Crater creator The Wolfe Creek meteorite crater was only discovered by Europeans during an aerial survey in Enjoying the park Sightseeing, walking, photography and nature observation are the most popular activities. Crater climb A m return walk to the top of the crater rim involves a steep rocky climb. Dragons and cockatoos Among the broken rocks on the crater wall you may see a brown ringtail dragon stalking insects that frequent the flowering shrubs.
Know before you go The best time to visit the park is from May to October, when the weather is fine and temperatures are moderate.
Getting there Wolfe Creek Crater National Park lies km from Halls Creek via the Tanami Road and access road gravel and only accessible to conventional vehicles during the dry season , a two to three hour drive.
Dogs Allowed? The impact of the meteorite tilted and overturned the rock, exposing rock that was previously shielded from cosmic radiation. The newly formed crater also deflected the local wind field and created a new set of sand dunes.
Results from the two dating techniques mutually support each other within the same age range. The researchers were able to produce a new topographic survey of the crater using aerial photos by Ted Brattstrom, a school teacher from Hawaii. He flew over the crater in a light aircraft in and took pictures of the crater from all directions. The resulting 3D model was used to create a digital elevation model of the crater.
The researchers calculate that the maximum width of the crater is metres in a NE-SW direction, reflecting the direction of the impact. The average diameter is metres. They also predict a crater depth of metres and that it is filled by about metres of sediment, mostly sand blown in from the desert.
Wolfe Creek Crater is one of seven sets of impact craters in Australia dating to within the last , years. From this, the researchers were able to calculate as to how often these crater-producing events occur. Dr Barrows said: "Although the rate is only one large meteor hitting Australia every 17, years, it isn't that simple.
Professor Barrows and his colleagues used two techniques to date the crater: exposure dating which estimates the length of time a rock has been exposed at the Earth's surface to cosmic radiation and optically stimulated luminescence which measures how long ago sediment was last exposed to sunlight.
The researchers also created a new 3D topographical model of the crater using aerial photographs taken by Ted Brattstrom, a Hawaiian high school teacher who flew over the crater in taking photos of it from a number of different directions. The average diameter is metres. Using the same geochronological dating techniques, the researchers were also able to recalculate the age of the Meteor Crater in Arizona. They found it is likely to be 61, years old, more than 10, years older than previously thought.
Geologists F Reeves and D Hart were the first non-Aboriginal people to come across this striking natural feature while conducting an aerial survey of the Canning Basin in In Wolfe Creek Crater was gazetted as a C class reserve. In protection of the area was upgraded to the status of Class A Reserve. From the turnoff, it is approximately 23 kilometres to the carpark.
When travelling to Wolfe Creek be prepared for unsealed roads and always close access gates when travelling on the access road. It is always recommended to travel in a 4WD vehicle due to the corrugations.
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