Terrestrial Impact Structures: Observation and Modeling

Mars

Mercury

Impact craters are found on any planetary body with a solid surface

Moon

Ida-243

Earths Known Impact Structures

~160
Earth retains the poorest record of impact craters amongst terrestrial planets

Why? Plate tectonics - Erosion Sedimentation - Life Oceans are relatively young and hard to explore
Many impact structures are covered by younger sediments, others are highly eroded or heavily modified by erosion. Few impact craters are well preserved on the surface

Roter Kamm, Namibia (1.6mi)

Spider, Australia (8.1mi) Brent, Canada (2.4 mi) Meteor Crater, AZ (0.75mi)

Wabar, Saudi Arabia (0.072mi) Manicouagan, Canada (62mi)

Wolfe Creek, Australia (0.55mi Vredefort, South Africa (125-185mi)

Popigai, Russia (62 mi)

Meteor Crater a.k.a. Barringer Crater

Meteor Crater, Arizona, is one the worlds most well known crater. Less than 1 mile across, it was created about 50,000 years ago. Formed by an iron asteroid. Lots of melted droplets and solid pieces of an iron-nickel material have been recovered in the area.

First-recognized impact crater on Earth:

Meteor Crater
1891: Grove Karl Gilbert organizes an expedition to Coon Mountain (old name of Meteor crater) to explore the impact hypothesis. He soon concluded that there was no evidence for impact, and attributes it to volcanism.
1902: Daniel Moreau Barringer secures the mining patents for the crater and the land around it. 1906 & 1909: Barringer writes papers attributing the crater to an impact event. Drilling and exploration continued at great expenses. 1928: Meteor crater becomes generally accepted as an impact crater. An article from National Geographic attributes the impact hypothesis to Gilbert, and fails to mention Barringers work. 1929: Investors decline to provide more funding to continue drilling. Barringer dies of a massive heart attack. 1946: The crater becomes officially Meteor Crater. The Meteoritical Society defines the proper scientific name as the Barringer Meteor Crater.

Impact Observations

Physical:
shape, inverted stratigraphy, material displaced

Shock evidence from the rocks:

shatter cones, shocked materials, melt rocks, material disruption

Geophysical data:
gravity & magnetic anomalies

Observational: Physical
Shape:
circular features Moltke
(2.7 mi) Tycho (53 mi)

Mystery structure #1

Gosses Bluff crater, Australia

Complex crater with a central peak ring (143 million years old)
Crater diameter: 22 km Mostly eroded away only spotted by the different color of the vegetation

Inner ring: 5 km Round bluff that is fairly easy to spot.

Mystery structure #2

Aorounga crater, Chad

Complex crater with a central peak ring
Crater diameter: 12.6 km Buried under rocks and sand for a long time, it has been uncovered again by recent erosion.

Possible crater Aorounga may be part of a crater chain

Mystery structure #3

Richat Structure, Mauritania

Structure diameter: 30 miles Formed by volcanic processes.

Not every circular feature on Earth is an impact crater!

It is necessary to visit the feature on the ground to observe its structural features and obtain rock samples. Only then we can be sure of what it is.

Mystery structure #4

Clearwater, Canada
two craters, both 290 Ma

Clearwater West: 22.5 miles Complex structure

Clearwater East: 16 miles

Probably they were made by a double asteroid, like Toutatis

Mystery structure #5

Chicxulub Structure, Mexico

65 Myr old (end of dinosaurs!)
Structure diameter: 106 miles
Crater is not really visible at the surface

First indication from world wide distribution of ejecta Only field work, drilling, and geophysical data could identify it.

Observational: Physical
Shape:
circular features Moltke
(2.7 mi) Tycho (53 mi)

Inverted Stratigraphy:
first recognized by Barringer (only for well preserved craters)

Meteor Crater

Material displaced:
Solid material broken up and ejected outside the crater: breccia, tektites

Observations: Shock Evidence

Shatter cones:
conical fractures with typical markings produced by shock waves

Shocked Material:
shocked quartz high pressure minerals

Melt Rocks:
melt rocks may result from shock and friction

Observations: Geophysical data

Gravity anomaly:
based on density variations of materials Generally negative (mass deficit) for impact craters

Magnetic:
based on variation of magnetic properties of materials

Seismic:
sound waves reflection and refraction from subsurface layers with different characteristics

Seismic Reflection and Refraction

Sound waves (pulses) are sent downward. They are reflected or refracted by layers with different properties in the crust. Different materials have very different sound speeds.

In dry, unconsolidated sand sound speed may reach 600 miles per hour (mi/h). Solid rock (like granite) can have a sound speed in excess of 15,000 mi/h. The more layers between the surface and the layer of interest, the more complicated the velocity picture.

Impact Modeling

Numerical modeling (i.e., computer simulations) is the best method to investigate the process of crater formation and material ejection

Formation of Impact Craters

D<Dth

D>Dth

Depth of transient crater function of the energy of impact and the propertiers of the target material Dth= Threshold diameter for transition from simple to complex craters (around 4 km on Earth)

Verification by numerical model

Formation of a simple crater

Formation of a complex crater

Simulations from Kai Wnneman, University of Arizona)

Modeling Examples

Formation of the Chesapeake structure:

material behavior: crater collapse and final shape

Origin of tektites:
expansion plume (vaporized material), solid and melted (e.g., tektites) ejecta

Chesapeake Crater, VA
Marine impact event, about 35 Myr old, with typical inverted sombrero shape due to multi-layer nature of target region: soft sediments + hard rock

Its existence explains several geological features of the area including the saline groundwater and higher rate of subsidence at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
Inner basin (the head of the sombrero) is about 25 miles wide - Outer basin (the brim of the sombrero) extends to about 53 miles.

Soft sediments

Hard rock

Simulation from Gareth Colins, university of Arizona (2004))

Chesapeake Crater

Simulation from Gareth Colins, university of Arizona (2004))

Tektites
Central European

North American
Ivory Coast Australasian

Silicate glass particles formed by the melting of terrestrial surface sediments by hypervelocity impact.They resemble obsidian in appearance and chemistry. Few inches in size, black to lime green in color, and aerodynamically shaped.

Concentrated in limited areas on the Earths surface, referred to as strewn fields. Four tektite strewn fields are known: North American @34 Ma (Chesapeake crater) Central European (Moldavites) @ 14.7 Ma (Ries crater) Ivory Coast @ 1 Ma (Bosumtwi crater) Australasian @ 0.77 Ma (unknown crater)

Understanding tektites
1788: Tektites are first described as a type of terrestrial volcanic glass. 1900: F.E. Suess, convinced they were some sort of glass meteorites, coined the term tektite from the greek word tektos, meaning molten. 1917: Meteoriticist F. Berwerth provides the first hint of a terrestrial origin of tektites by finding that tektites were chemically similar to certain sedimentary rocks.
1948: A Sky & Telescope article by H.H. Nininger sustains the hypothesis of a lunar origin of tektites

1958: An impact origin for tektites is discussed in a paper by J.S. Rinehart.

1960: J.A. OKeefe enters the dispute, in favor of the lunar origin hypothesis. 1963-1972: The Apollo program returns samples of the Moon to Earth, disproving the connection tektites-Moon.

Modeling Tektite Formation

Potential tektites Solid target Melted impactor

Simulation from Natalia Artemieva, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow (2003)

Modeling Tektite Ejection

Simulation from Natalia Artemieva, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow (2003)

Tektite Formation: Moldavites

Stffler, Artemieva, Pierazzo, 2003

Distance across tra jectory (km)

200

100

-100

-200

100 200 300 400 500 D istan ce a lon g tra jectory (k m)

Tektites form in typical medium-size impacts in areas with surface sands They tend to be distributed downrange of the impact point Their low water content is due to the thermal evolution of the melt droplets

In summary:
Impact craters are everywhere, even on Earth!
Not every circular structure is an impact crater

Terrestrial impact structures tend to be eroded, buried or modified by geologic processes

By combining remote and ground observations, laboratory experiments, and theoretical studies we can learn what happens in a large impact event1 and to recognize impact structures