Al Hawi, a 4-km-wide impact structure in northern Saudi Arabia

The northern region of Saudi Arabia hosts several impact craters and structures. This paper describes the discovery of a 4-km-wide complex impact structure located in the paleozoic sedimentary rocks of northern Saudi Arabia 210 kilometers north east of the city of Tabuk. The impact structure is composed of a central peak displaying intense folding and shock metamorphism surrounded by an inner ring of mountains followed by a wider outer ring. The presence of shocked quartz displaying planar deformation features(PDFs) along with polymict breccia, micro-faults, steep folding and stratigraphic deformation suggests the structure was created by an extraterrestrial impact event.