Insights into Sudbury’s deep architecture: a revised geodynamic model for Earth’s largest ore-bearing impact structure

Impact cratering has played a fundamental role in Earth’s geological history and has resulted in the formation of some of the world’s most productive economic mineral deposits. Here, we investigate the crater architecture of one of the top three largest terrestrial impact structures: the unique 1.85-billion-year-old Sudbury basin (Canada), the richest crater-hosted mineral district in the world. The integration of two, recently completed ~ 3 km ultra-deep drill holes combined with high-resolution geophysical imaging provides new evidence for a concentric uplifted horst-like feature. This indicates that Sudbury is a peak-ring structure with at least two concentric fault systems internal to the collapsed crater rim; sharing similarities with the Schrödinger impact crater on the Moon. A radially-orientated crater-floor trench accommodates a recently discovered > 30-million-tonne nickel-copper-platinum group element ore body. Our proposed model provides a revised framework to evaluate cratering processes and related mineral resources associated with a terrestrial peak-ring impact structure.