Idaho, USA Impact Craters
Oregon anomaly map
Washington State
Central Idaho Crater >>>
Well this is sad. If you googee that you will only find this small thing I don't even see on the above map.
The Beaverhead crater is an impact structure spanning the U.S. states of Idaho and Montana. Estimated at 60 kilometers (37 mi) in diameter, it is one of the largest impact craters on Earth.
With an estimated age of 600 million years (Neoproterozoic), the impact's original shatter cones along the crater's perimeter provide some of the structure's only remaining visible evidence.
It is named for the Beaverhead region of southwestern Montana in which it was first discovered. Anomaly map of the structure shown below.
Besides that they got the size wrong too. Oh well, they know about shatter cones, lol. They really don't. You can read a comprehensive explanation of shatter coning at: https://www.hillbillyu.com/shatter-cones
Follow the money! This is a gold mining map of Idaho. While it is a common misconception that surface earth minerals are from some vague tectonic process meteor impact is much more plausible. Also a common mineral blast is indicative of a central crater. Anomaly maps can detail smaller later craters obscuring older larger impacts.
Idaho Central Crater Theory - Big impacts make a central uplift then a low plane then rise to the crater wall.
Karst sinkhole and cave map of US. It shows the plane void arc that runs through central Idaho.
Impact sphere in the pulverized overfill layer of crater blast. This fine soil may or may not be ash/bentonite but you can see how fine it is. It could be a sandy loam but the color is too white and calcium bentonite is my guess. Yes, I am correct see below. As geology is oblivious to how the Earth really formed they suggest this ash is volcanic yet have not volcano capable of this much ash and can't specifically identify it. The impact however is plain to see and very large.
The Hoodoo Series consists of very deep, poorly drained soils formed in alluvium mainly from volcanic ash. Hoodoo soils are in drainageways, on stream terraces, bottomlands and around perimeters of lakes. Slopes are 0 to 8 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 30 inches and the mean annual temperature is about 43 degrees F.
Official Series Description - HOODOO Series - USDA
June. 9, 2024.
Idaho Rocks & Gems
Anyone who's up at the Succor Creek thunderegg spot will find a PILE of thundernuts. Had a great time and set aside an easy find for the next person.
Impact crater as seen from space. June 9, 2024.
Idaho and Landsat
Fact Sheet 2022-3013
By: U.S. Geological Survey
Sorry, all you phone internet people but you really need to get a big screen and a desktop to study rocks. This is a shock agate from the Hoodoo basin. It is an impact nodule expansion with high resonate effects. On the right and left you can see the series of arcs around the feature. That is a resonate signature just frozen in time. The binder is actually suevite melt. It has a botryoidal cavity which is the material bubbling. The agate feature is a high energy wave form which stratified the minerals by resonance. The tiny crystals are fast fromed as it cooled. June 9, 2024.
Jay Weaver · ·
Just thought you might enjoy my best Succor Creek Thunder Egg. This one has a bit of everything in it. Even better looking in person!
Succor Creek Impact Sphere pile up. June 9, 2024.
illamette Agate & Mineral Society, Inc. ·
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Mike Freedom · ·
Succor Creek photo dump. Took some photos of members looking for their treasures.
Sulfur map USA. While some states are a blur other states like Idaho show the impact craters which were negative or positive for sulfur. Sulfur is often found in meteorites and impactites. Some locations around craters will have sulfur springs. June 9, 2024.
Charged fractal dendrite, notice how it follows the iron fractal which is also going left to right as branching is a downstream energy effect. Specimen appears to have iron, cobalt, and manganese. June 15, 2024.
Ashley Snook · ·
What's in my basalt? interested to learn why it has all these colors and designs in it!
location: latah County, Idaho
Top contributor
Impactite, energy made fractals with imparted metal from the impacting bolide/meteor. Take a look at the attached magnification. It shows fractal flow in reduction. This is the energy dissipation.
fossil information & identification
Tamara Porath · ·
Found this in Lightning Creek, Clark Fork Idaho. You can see there's actually grooves in the rock where the "black" material is located. It has some reflective properties when it hits the light, bit not shiny or anything... and the last picture shows what looks like branches or the top of a leafy bush, maybe... thoughts??
Google Images said "Cladoxylopsids: An extinct group of plants related to ferns and sphenopsids," which kinda fits my thoughts in terms of possibilities.
< Clark Fork Crater
Scotchman's Peak - Clark Fork, Idaho | Nspire Magazine
Wave made slate with iron shown left. Impact bricking cross grid shown on slope to the right. Aug. 18, 2024.
Cojoined impact spheres with impalements, prehnite with epidote. While these are found all over the world and are thought to be not impact in origin they are. While calcium based they have high hardness and are shock tempered. Sept. 21, 2024.
Charley Chuck · ·
Any clue??....
Tube Agate. Notice how the central area is melted together. That is a high shock resonance effect as shock is like your microwave oven and cooks from the inside out. Oct. 27, 2024.
Darren Johnson · ·
I found this beast in Central Idaho a few days ago.
Impact nodule. It has type 1 impact bricking with offset. The offset is part of a progressive process with the first stripe (thin plane insertion) being distorted by the second. The iron is from the impacting meteor/bolide. Concave distortion is also from the offset stripe. Jan. 25, 2024.
Melanie Johnson
My daughter is interested in knowing more about this rock. She is tempted to break it open. It has seven points of connection. Any advice for her.
Located in north Idaho.
The impact crater. There are several impact craters in North Idaho. Just for fun let's look at what you would see from space like the other planets. I have circled one of the most obvious, a topo crater. Why call it a topo crater? Well, that is because like taking an x-ray a geology anomaly map will show the less obvious craters. Jan. 25, 2025.
Melanie Johnson
Author
Lee Isham she found it in that circle!
Melanie Johnson If there is a town or something recognizable near the center of the circle we should name the crater.
Author
Lee Isham the closest town to the center is a small town called Blanchard. We are at the dot down below, Coeur d'alene. She likely found it just to the right of there, a smidge outside the circle.
Topo craters quite old crossing into Idaho on left. Feb. 15, 2025.
Pattern resonance multiple harmonics. This is called pattern resonance or shock circles. Shock circle impactites are made with much higher energy than striated shatter cones. Partitioned resonance is different from central core type resonance. The higher power central core resonance makes shock agates. A lower power breakup wave resonances is expending its energy on the surface but you also have a half circle in the lower body which is a more powerful imprint actually shaping the specimen. It was in a simi plasma state at the time of formation. Source Crater? In Idaho you don't have to work to reference a crater as the whole state is essentially a crater called "Big Idaho." Feb. 16, 2025.
Joe Blume
I’m very curious about the process that created these concentric patterns in the stone. Any ideas? From the Owyhee’s.
The Big Idaho Crater as shown in the bedrock. Feb. 16, 2025.
USGS Volcano mapping shows the big impact crust break and splatter. The mountains are an impact subduction. Feb. 25, 2025.
Impact breccia. April 1, 2025.
Slab of the Day, Good Egg Jasper from the newest club claims. This is a Brecciated Jasper from out of the Grandview Idaho Area.
Grandview is part of the Big Idaho Crater along the rim. April 1, 2025.
This is a proto agate with resonate shock circles in partition. It is a stage in the high energy shock melt process. April 1, 2025.
Caleb Mondragoon
Studied at Lewis-Clark State College
Lives in Kamiah, Idaho
Where found. Lewis County, Idaho
Type 24 Charged Impact Breccia Conglomerate Bricking. This is a variant off type 3 charged bricking and Impact Bricking Type 19 energized right angle branching along with Type 17 impact bricking. Right hand rule branching, and Impact breccia, type 7 conformal bricking. Is no twisting like in type 19 where twisting is a higher energy level. The small pebbles were present however the breccia is formed by the energy grid. A complex presentation of an impact made form. The Owyhees are in SW Idaho and part of the big Idaho crater that takes up most of the state. May 11, 2025.
Craig Larsen is with Jodi Larsen.
​Anyone have an Idea what these may be Found in the Owyhees ?
Impact melt beading in colors. May 13, 2025. Aimee Danielle, Idaho Falls, Idaho
Fractals branching this was a high charge type. The trunk is mostly straight which means it was a high energy charge. Is an example like this a second order fractal? Yes, and the same is true with the crust of iron that is also producing this second order fractal effect extending into the rock. The green is copper mottling which is a binary rejection pattern in a state of not mixed. 22 Sept. 2025.
Charles Duane Fresh
Does anybody know what this is
I found. A whole mountain full of it.
Impact surface from the "Big Idaho" crater. On attached magnification: 1. meteor marbling. 2. Shatter Cone. 3. Expansion circles with outer rim losing it's elasticity and going into a zig zag type of loss of pliability. Expansion circles are a type of bubbling only in two dimensions. When the bubbles connect, they form impact geometrics constrained expansion figures. This is the same mechanism that makes columnar basalt only in three dimensions as a tube. 3 Dec. 2025.
Idaho Rocks & Gems
I realize that this isn’t a type of rock/question normally asked here but I’m hoping someone who knows a LOT more than I do about rocks has an opinion on this one. It’s a part of our landscaping project and is a step destined for our backyard. But we cannot even begin to guess what caused the circles on this rock, which is native Idaho rock but I do not know from exactly where. Any ideas? And thank you for taking a look and maybe even solving this little mystery for us.
Magnetic map versus satellite map, see below. 3 Dec. 2025.
That is an impactite made from a large meteor hitting earth. Fractal dendrites are a "charged effect" like lightning. It is energy dissipation by grounding. The banding is from shockwave resonance which separates the minerals by their attenuation except that on the right you can see more of that fractal branching so the iron separated by resonance is also taking the charge and distributing it. Impact is a highly charged event and much more powerful than any nuclear explosion which cause, you guessed it, EMP's. 12 Dec. 2025.
Idaho Rocks & Gems
What kind of rock do we think this is? Google lens says petrified wood, but I am not sure that is exactly what it is. I know it has a dendrite but I'm not sure about the stone.
Challis Mt. Shock Agate. Flame coning and shock floor. Directional agate or any impactite with a single direction shock formation is grouped as a shock floor. While the minerals were separated by resonate attenuation, anytime you see fractals think electromagnetism. While there are a multitude of electromagnetic causes in an impact the simplest is piezoelectric with a whole-body quartz release of electrons. 20 Dec. 2025. Idaho Rocks & GemsJoe Hitz·November 3·Those trees are on fire, in this Challis Mountain jasper/agate.Thanks for looking.
Earthquakes and craters. Impact makes voids in the rubble which will resolve stress by an earthquake. The picture on the left is impact ash and impactite nodules. The large boulder pictures on right shows impact bricking and plasma cavitation, ignore the graffiti paint. 20 Dec. 2025.
Barb Millick Fox ·March 31, 2020 ·
1983 Challis Earthquake..Susie and Bill Millick standing in the scarp line...shows how far the valley floor dropped by Mr. Borah. Large rock that rolled off the hill, around this little house owned by Bill and Susie Millick, and stopped in the front yard. Building that collapsed and tragically killed two little children.
Another interesting shock agate from the Beaverhead impact. The cloud structures are a binary rejection pattern i.e. not mixed state would require higher energy to mix completely. The fractal of course is an electromagnetic figure negative charge. The positive type are more compact. 20 Dec. 2025.
Matthew Elliott
Found this agate in challis with something in the center and I had to see the opposite side. Took forever to grind it down but I was surprised with the outcome.
Shock made quartz twinning. At the bottom you can see the smaller twinning an iteration of the waveform energy i.e. extra energy. The lateral striations are the actual waveform record. High pressure, heat and vibration make these fast form crystals. 20 Dec. 2025.
Idaho Rocks & Gems
Some challis volcanic material
Honestly idk what’s going on but it’s cool. Good quartz, tourmaline and some kinda feldspar? It’s got rad Schiller
Now here is a simpler shock agate in milky quartz. The high energy has only imprinted the wavelength but the top part is going into a more typical agate reflection. You even can see the type 1 bricking of crossing harmonics faintly in the upper right quadrant. The iron is from the meteor. This impact either deposited gold or excavated it Williams Gold Mine Near Challis, Idaho | The Diggings™ 20 Dec. 2025.
Agate Collectors Worldwide
Dmitry Selivanov ·June 27, 2020 ·
Agate nodule Challis Idaho
Impacts fracture deep into the earth's crust causing hot springs. 20 Dec. 2025.
Chris Marshall
Steamy hot spring pool
How big is the Beaverhead Crater really? On the satellite map it looks like this. 20 Dec. 2025.
In any event it excavated into Big Idaho Crater. 20 Dec. 2025.
The gold mines of Idaho indicate that Big Idaho deposited it. Other impacts just excavated down to exposures. 20 Dec. 2025.
Gold Mining Locations in Idaho - Places You Can Still Find Gold ...
Mining claims in general show other impacts that contained minerals. 20 Dec. 2025.
Mineral Property Files | Idaho Geological Survey
High charge impact nodule, thunderegg. Unlike an impact nodule expansion like a typical geode this is opening up inside because of high charged energy. The fractal dendrites are an expression of this high negative charge. The manganese dendrites in the lower frame are an expression of this charged effect. While the initial high shock made it as a melt drop and highly shock metamorphic the major points make it a high electromagnetic charged effect. The circular structure inside was a shock resonate effect. While an impact will produce many charged effects the shock through quartz releases the piezoelectric effect through the nodule at once. The quartz is micro crystalline. 25 Dec. 2025.
Southern Idaho RockHounds
Rising contributor
Half of a 60 pound Thunder egg cut and polished
Interesting impactite. The outer rind is a resonance made physics. The core is breccia still visible although undergoing shock melt. The overall shape is a shock nodule a rough melt drop shape. The internal breccia was broken up by the impact. Impact is a multi-stage event. The waxy exterior is chalcedony. The rose pink is a micro iron content from the meteor/bolide. It is very unlikely that the lake was formed by a glacier. There is a series of three craters connecting this depression. A 1,500 feet depression is likely however as an earth impact. 4 Jan. 2026.
Idaho Rocks & Gems
Can you tell me more about these Silicon Dioxide (quartz) stones?
Cracked one open to see if it was an agate, and there's a defined rind but cubic interior. Wondering if it's worth transporting and cutting the larger one.
Rose pink and peach in color.
Waxy, potato peel exterior.
Found S. Lake Pend Oreille.
Fork for scale.
