Suavjärvi crater

Infobox lake
lake_name = Suavjärvi lake
image_lake =
caption_lake =
image_bathymetry =
caption_bathymetry =
location = Republic of Karelia
coords = coord|63|7|N|33|23|E|type:waterbody_region:RU|display=inline,title
type = impact crater lake
inflow =
outflow =
catchment =
basin_countries = Russia
length =
width = 3 km
area =
depth =
max-depth =
volume =
residence_time =
shore =
elevation =
islands =
cities =

Suavjärvi ( _ru. Суавъярви) is a lake and impact crater in the Republic of Karelia, Russia about 50 km north of the town of Medvezhyegorsk. The approximately 3 km wide Suavjärvi lake is located in the centre of the crater.

The crater is 16 km in diameter and it is estimated to be about 2,400 million years old, placing it in the Archean-Proterozoic boundary. That makes it the oldest known impact crater on Earth. Not much of the crater has survived, although some shock features like large blocks composed of impact breccia have been found.

External links

* [http://www.unb.ca/passc/ImpactDatabase/ Earth Impact Database]
*cite journal | author=M.S. Mashchak, M.V. Naumov | title=The Suavjarvi Structure: An Early Proterozoic Impact Site on the Fennoscandian Shield | journal=Lunar and Planetary Science | volume=27 | issue=3 | year=1996 | pages=825–826 | url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1996LPI....27..825M&db_key=AST&data_type=HTML&format=