The Lake Bosumtwi meteorite impact structure, Ghana-Where is the magnetic source?

Abstract

The Bosumtwi impact structure (Ghana) is a young and well-preserved structure where a vast amount of information is available to constrain any geophysical model. Previous analysis of the airborne magnetic data and results of numerical simulation of impact predicted a strongly magnetic impact-melt body underneath the lake. Recent drilling through the structure did not penetrate such an expected impact-melt rock magnetic source. A new 3-D magnetic model for the structure was constructed based on a newly acquired higher-resolution marine magnetic data set, with consideration of the observed gravity data on the lake, previous seismic models, and the magnetic properties and lithology identified in the two International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) deep boreholes. The new model contains highly magnetic bodies located in the northeast sector of the structure, not centered onto the drilling sites. As in previous models, higher magnetization than that measured in outcropping impactites had to be assigned to the unexposed source bodies. Integration of the new model with the borehole petrophysics and published geology indicates that these bodies likely correspond to an extension to the south of the Kumasi batholith, which outcrops to the northeast of the structure. The possibility that these source bodies are related to the seismically identified central uplift or to an unmapped impact-melt sheet predicted by previous models of the structure is not supported. Detailed magnetic scanning of the Kumasi batholith to the north, and the Bansu intrusion to the south, would provide a test for this interpretation.