The federally protected Aubry National Glasslands is named for François Xavier Aubry who (apart from Native Americans who roamed there from antiquity) first explored the area in the 1840s. It embraces 93,520 acres and lies in a rough ring around the rim of the Dole impact basin across three different states, embracing the geologically most interesting radius of the Dole meteor strewn field. The borders of this ring are conformed to rectangular section lines, as though it were a low resolution graphic of a fat circle. It is particularly rich in splash-form tektites created from the shales and sedimentary rock prevalent in the area. The area is a veritable museum of impact breccias. Layers of microtektites overlay the bedrock. There are impact glasses ranging from black to gray to green are evident on the surface. Access is by primitive gravel roads, but it remains public land. Typically, however, from November through May the natural glasses on the surface are typically hidden by snow.

At the Dole impact complex the originating event opened fractures in the underlying crust causing deeper sources of magma to rise relatively near to the surface, resulting in a set of geothermal features similar to those found at Yellowstone and Thermopolis. The impacting bolide, estimated to have been approximately 120-150 feet in diameter, has never been recovered but surface fragments with sulfur content are widely evident. Many fumeroles, hot springs, and mud pots exist within the crater, but the most striking feature is a thick and persistent geothermal fog similar to what is found at the Gunnuhver site in Iceland. The rim of the central crater serves to confine this fog, resulting in a micro-climate where the mean daily minimum from December through February hovers near freezing rather than 15 F found outside of the Dole system. Summers inside the crater are uncomfortably sticky and almost tropical, but not unbearably so, as the permanent fog greatly attenuates sunlight.

Dole Crater was identified as an complex impact structure in the 1870s and later dated to about 1.6 million years of age. The crater rim rises to a mean 250 feet above the slightly depressed crater floor and 220 feet above the surrounding plains. Migdalel Butte (“Tower of God”) at 370 feet is the remnant of a central splash-back peak, one of the few clear examples of such on Earth, and only the second found in North America. Of the four rivers flowing from the Garden in Eden Gen. 2:11 reads, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘗𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘯: 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘩, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘭𝘥. There was never real gold in modern Havilah, but always much fools gold. The impacting bolide was the origin of much ejecta in the form of iron pyrites. However, compression and fractures in the underlying bedrock accessed a source of natural gas that became important for the economy of Havilah in early 20th Century and justified a rail spur that remains the primary means to access the town.

The Pison River begins in an underground pool of warm water in the center of the Dole impact complex and enters Lake Taijitu on the east side of the crater interior. The name of this lake suggests its Yin-Yang shape: there is a small round island in the widest portion. The lake overflows the lowest part of the rim and after penetrating a short winding gully cutting through the crater rim it meanders roughly east by northeast across the Great Plains and eventually becomes a string of isolated ponds in a twisting ravine some two hundred miles long. With the exception of one or two rainy weeks in spring and again in autumn the Pison River parallels the White through much of South Dakota but never quite reaches the Missouri River intact. The Pison is named from a mythical river in Genesis (using the KJV spelling) that has never been identified. The same passage also gave the name Havilah to the town that was platted out inside the crater along the west side beginning in 1866.