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1.
Abstract— The Kärdla crater is a 4 km‐wide impact structure of Late Ordovician age located on Hiiumaa Island, Estonia. The 455 Ma‐old buried crater was formed in shallow seawater in Precambrian crystalline target rocks that were covered with sedimentary rocks. Basement and breccia samples from 13 drill cores were studied mineralogically, petrographically, and geochemically. Geochemical analyses of major and trace elements were performed on 90 samples from allochthonous breccias, sub‐crater and surrounding basement rocks. The breccia units do not include any melt rocks or suevites. The remarkably poorly mixed sedimentary and crystalline rocks were deposited separately within the allochthonous breccia suites of the crater. The most intensely shockmetamorphosed allochthonous granitoid crystalline‐derived breccia layers contain planar deformation features (PDFs) in quartz, indicating shock pressures of 20–35 GPa. An apparent K‐enrichment and Ca‐Na‐depletion of feldspar‐ and hornblende‐bearing rocks in the allochthonous breccia units and sub‐crater basement is interpreted to be the result of early stage alteration in an impact‐induced hydrothermal system. The chemical composition of the breccias shows no definite sign of an extraterrestrial contamination. By modeling of the different breccia units with HMX‐mixing, the indigenous component was determined. From the abundances of the siderophile elements (Cr, Co, Ni, Ir, and Au) in the breccia samples, no unambiguous evidence for the incorporation of a meteoritic component above about 0.1 wt% chondrite‐equivalent was found.  相似文献   

2.
Abstract— The Lockne and Tvären impact craters in Sweden formed in a marine environment during the Ordovician The contrast in density between the impact breccias and the surrounding target rock of these two craters is significantly lower than what has been found in craters formed in crystalline targets on land. Another marine‐target structure, the Estonian Kärdla structure, demonstrates intermediate contrast in impact breccia and target rock, which we attribute to the interpreted shallowness of the sea at the Kärdla impact site. We conclude that the main cause for these low‐density contrasts is pore and fracture filling of calcite with subordinate quartz and fluorite. Calcite is the most abundant cement, and its density differs most from that of fractured and brecciated bedrock with a low degree of cementation. Furthermore, from the studied cases, it is concluded that the target rock to impact rock contrast is generally the highest in craters formed on land in crystalline targets and the lowest in craters formed at sea, while craters formed on land in sedimentary targets are intermediate. The low density contrasts should decrease the negative gravity anomalies of marine craters.  相似文献   

3.
Abstract— The impact‐induced hydrothermal system in the well‐preserved, 4 km‐diameter Kärdla impact crater on Hiiumaa Island, western Estonia, was investigated by means of mineralogical, chemical, and stable C and O isotope studies. The mineralization paragenetic sequence, with gradually decreasing temperature, reveals at least three evolutionary stages in the development of the post‐impact hydrothermal system: 1) an early vapor‐dominated stage (>300 °C) with precipitation of submicroscopic adularia type K‐feldspar; 2) the main stage (300 to 150/100 °C) with the development of a two‐phase (vapor to liquid) zone leading to precipitation of chlorite/corrensite, (idiomorphic) euhedral K‐feldspar, and quartz; and 3) a late liquid‐dominated stage (<100 °C) with calcite I, dolomite, quartz, calcite II, chalcopyrite/pyrite, Fe‐oxyhydrate, and calcite III precipitation.  相似文献   

4.
Abstract— The 4 km wide and 500 m deep circular Kärdla impact structure in Hiiumaa Island, Estonia, of middle Ordovician age (~455 Ma), is buried under Upper Ordovician and Quaternary sediments. To constrain the geophysical models of the structure, petrophysical properties such as magnetic susceptibility, natural remanent magnetization (NRM), density, electrical conductivity, porosity and P-wave velocity were measured on samples of crystalline and sedimentary rocks collected from drill cores in different parts of the structure and the surrounding area. The results were used to interpret the central gravity anomaly of ?3 mGal and the magnetic anomaly of ?100 nT and also the surrounding weak positive anomalies revealed by high precision survey data. The unshocked granitic rocks outside the structure have a mean density of ~2630 kgm?3. Their shocked counterparts have densities of ~2400 kgm?3 at a depth of ~500 m, increasing up to 2550 kgm?3 at a depth of 850 m. Porosity and electrical conductivity decrease, but P-wave velocity increases as density increases away from the impact point. Thus, the gradual changes in the physical properties of the rocks as a function of radial distance from the crater centre are consistent with an impact origin for Kärdla. As in many other impact structures, the magnetization of the shocked rocks are also clearly lower than those of unshocked target rocks. A new geophysical and geological model of the Kärdla structure is presented based on geophysical field measurements and data on gradual changes in petrophysical parameters of the shocked target and overlying rocks, together with structural data from numerous boreholes. An important feature of this model is the lack of an observable geophysical signature of the central uplift observed in drillcores.  相似文献   

5.
Abstract— Impact and geothermal modeling was performed to explain hydrothermal alteration in a 4 km marine complex crater at Kärdla, Estonia. The impact modeling was used to simulate the formation of the crater and the post‐impact temperature distribution in crater environment. The geothermal modeling accounted for coupled heat transfer and multi‐phase fluid flow in a variably saturated medium. The modeling results suggest that strong convective fluid flow was initiated. During the first stage, the cooling was rapid due to the effect of the latent heat of vaporization, which efficiently decreased the temperature to the boiling point. The modeling results are consistent with geological observations.  相似文献   

6.
Abstract— The Lockne and Tvären craters formed about 455 million years ago in an epicontinental sea where seawater and mainly limestones covered a crystalline basement. The target water depth for Tvären (apparent basement crater diameter D = 2 km) was probably not over 150 m, and for Lockne (D = 7.5 km) recent best‐fit numerical simulations suggest the target water depth of 500–700 m. Lockne has crystalline ejecta that partly cover an outer crater (14 km diameter) apparent in the target sediments. Tvären is eroded with only the crater infill preserved. We have line‐logged cores through the resurge deposits within the craters in order to analyze the resurge flow. The focus was clast lithology, frequencies, and size sorting. We divide the resurge into “resurge proper,” with water and debris shooting into the crater and ultimately rising into a central water plume, “anti‐resurge,” with flow outward from the collapsing plume, and “oscillating resurge” (not covered by the line‐logging due to methodological reasons), with decreasing flow in diverse directions. At Lockne, the deposit of the resurge proper is coarse and moderately sorted, whereas the anti‐resurge deposit is fining upwards and better sorted. The Tvären crater has a smoothly fining‐up section deposited by the resurge proper and may lack anti‐resurge deposits. At Lockne, the content of crystalline relative to limestone clasts generally decreases upwards, which is the opposite of Tvären. This may be a consequence of factors such as crater size (i.e., complex versus simple) and the relative target water depth. The mean grain size (i.e., the mean ‐phi value per meter, ø) and standard deviation, i.e., size sorting (s?) for both craters, can be expressed by the equation s? = 0.60ø ? 1.25.  相似文献   

7.
Effect of meteorite impact on the biological evolution is usually considered by its catastrophic consequences. However, the impacts can create opportunity for other organisms and the structures themselves can serve as suitable ecological niches (oases) for life. In this contribution we present results of modeling of an impact-induced hydrothermal (IHT) system in a small-to-medium sized impact crater, where the development of zones habitable for primitive hydrothermal thermophilic and hypethermophilic microorganisms was studied. The impact and geothermal modeling was verified against the 4-km diameter Kärdla complex structure, Hiiumaa Island, Estonia. If there is an sufficient amount of water present in the target (e.g., sea cover, groundwater or permafrost resources) then the differential temperature fields created by the impact initiate a hydrothermal circulation system within the crater. The results of transient fluid flow and heat transfer simulations in Kärdla suggest that immediately after impact the temperatures in the central area, which contains the most hydrothermal alteration, were well above the boiling point. However, due to efficient heat loss at the groundwater vaporization front, the vapor-dominated area disappears within a few decades. In the central uplift area, the conditions favorable for thermophilic microorganisms (temperatures <100 °C) were reached in 500–1000 years after the impact. The overall cooling to ambient temperatures in the deeper parts of the central uplift lasted for thousands of years. In the crater depression and rim area the initial temperatures, suggested by the impact modeling, were much lower—from 150 °C to ambient temperatures, except locally in fracture zones and suevite pockets. Our data suggest that in small-to-medium size impact craters with insignificant melting, the suitable conditions for hydrothermal microbial communities are established shortly (tens to few hundreds of years as maximum) after the impact in most parts of the crater. In the central uplift area the microbial colonization is inhibited for about a thousand years. However, this is the area, which afterwards retains the optimum temperatures (45–120 °C) needed for hydrothermal microorganisms for the longest period. Geochemical and mineralogical data suggest, in general, neutral pH 7(±1) fluid of the IHT system, which is, when compared to volcanic hydrotherms, richer in dissolved oxygen and poor in reduced compounds. This suggests the preference for sulfur-reducing microorganisms in the possible impact-induced hydrothermal communities.  相似文献   

8.
Abstract— The Lockne and Tvären craters formed in the Late Ordovician Baltoscandian epicontinental sea. Both craters demonstrate similarities concerning near‐synchronous age, target seabed, and succeeding resurge deposits; however, the water depths at the impact sites and the sizes of the craters were not alike. The post‐impact sedimentary succession of carbonates, i.e., the Dalby Limestone, deposited on top of the resurge sediments in the two craters, is nevertheless similar. At least three main facies of the Dalby Limestone were established in the Lockne crater, depending on sea‐floor topography, location with respect to the crater, and local water currents. The dominating nodular argillaceous facies, showing low values of inorganic carbon (IC), was distributed foremost in the deeper and quiet areas of the crater floor and depressions. At the crater rim, consisting of crushed crystalline basement ejecta, a rim facies with a reef‐like fauna was established, most certainly due to topographical highs and substrate‐derived nutrients. Between these facies are occurrences of a relatively thick‐bedded calcilutite rich in cephalopods (cephalopod facies). In Tvären, the lower part of the succession consists of an analogous argillaceous facies, also showing similar low IC values as in Lockne, followed by calcareous mudstones with an increase of IC. Occasionally biocalcarenites with a distinctive fauna occur in the Tvären succession, probably originating as detritus from a facies developed on the rim. They are evident as peaks in IC and lows in organic carbon (Corg). The fauna in these biocalcarenites corresponds very well with those of erratic boulders derived from Tvären; moreover, they correspond to the rim facies of Lockne except for the inclusion of photosynthesizing algae, indicating shallower water at Tvären than Lockne. Consequently, we suggest equivalent distribution patterns for the carbonates of the Dalby Limestone in Lockne and Tvären.  相似文献   

9.
Lockne is a concentric impact structure due to a layered target where weak sediments and seawater covered a crystalline basement. A matrix‐supported, sedimentary breccia is interlayered between the crystalline breccia lens and the resurge deposits in the crater infill. As the breccia is significantly different from the direct impact breccia and the resurge deposit, we propose a separate unit name, Tramsta Breccia, based on the type locality (i.e., the LOC02 drilling at Tramsta). We use granulometry and a novel matrix line‐log method to characterize the sedimentology of the Tramsta Breccia. The obliquity of impact combined with the layered target caused an asymmetric, concentric transient crater, which upon its collapse controlled the deposition of the breccia. On the wide‐brimmed downrange side of the crater where the sedimentary target succession was removed during crater excavation, wide, overturned basement crater ejecta flaps prevented any slumping of exterior sediments. Instead, the sediments most likely originated from the uprange side where the brim was narrow and the basement crater rim was poorly developed, sediment‐rich, and relatively unstable. Here, the water cavity wall remained in closer proximity to the basement crater and, aided by the pressure of the collapsing water wall, unconsolidated black mud would flow back into the crater. The absence of interlayered resurge deposits in the Tramsta Breccia and the evidence for reworking at the contact between the overlying resurge deposits and the Tramsta Breccia indicate that the slumping was a rapid process (<75 s) terminating well before the resurge entered the crater.  相似文献   

10.
Abstract— The Obolon impact structure, 18 km in diameter, is situated at the northeastern slope of the Ukrainian Shield near its margin with the Dnieper‐Donets Depression. The crater was formed in crystalline rocks of the Precambrian basement that are overlain by marine Carboniferous and continental Lower Triassic deposits. The post‐impact sediments comprise marine Middle Jurassic (Bajocian and Bathonian) and younger Mesozoic and Cenozoic deposits. Today the impact structure is buried beneath an about 300‐meter‐thick sedimentary rock sequence. Most information on the Obolon structure is derived from two boreholes in the western part of the crater. The lowest part of the section in the deepest borehole is composed by allogenic breccia of crystalline basement rocks overlain by clast‐rich impact melt rocks and suevites. Abundant shock metamorphic effects are planar deformation features (PDFs) in quartz and feldspars, kink bands in biotite, etc. Coesite and impact diamonds were found in clast‐rich impact melt rocks. Crater‐fill deposits are a series of sandstones and breccias with blocks of sedimentary rocks that are covered by a layer of crystalline rock breccia. Crystalline rock breccias, conglomeratic breccias, and sandstones with crystalline rock debris have been found in some boreholes around the Obolon impact structure to a distance of about 50 km from its center. Those deposits are always underlain by Lower Triassic continental red clay and overlain by Middle Jurassic marine clay. The K‐Ar age of impact melt glasses is 169 Ma, which corresponds to the Middle Jurassic (Bajocian) age. The composition of crater‐fill rocks within the crater and sediments outside the Obolon structure testify to its formation under submarine conditions.  相似文献   

11.
The Målingen structure is an approximately 700 m wide, rimmed, sediment‐filled, circular depression in Precambrian crystalline basement approximately 16.2 km from the concentric, marine‐target Lockne crater (inner, basement crater diameter approximately 7.5 km, total diameter in sedimentary strata approximately 13.5 km). We present here results from geologic mapping, a 148.8 m deep core drilling from the center of the structure, detailed biostratigraphic dating of the structure's formation and its age correlation with Lockne, chemostratigraphy of the sedimentary infill, and indication for shock metamorphism in quartz from breccias below the crater infill. The drill core reveals, from bottom to the top, approximately 33 m of basement rocks with increased fracturing upward, approximately 10 m of polymict crystalline breccia with shock features, approximately 97 m of slumped Cambrian mudstone, approximately 4.7 m of a normally graded, polymict sedimentary breccia that in its uppermost part grades into sandstone and siltstone (cf. resurge deposits), and approximately 1.6 m of secular sediments. The combined data set shows that the Målingen structure formed in conjunction with the Lockne crater in the same marine setting. The shape and depth of the basement crater and the cored sequence of crystalline breccias with shocked quartz, slumped sediments, and resurge deposits support an impact origin. The stratigraphic and geographic relationship with Lockne suggests the Lockne and Målingen craters to be the first described doublet impact structure by a binary asteroid into a marine‐target setting.  相似文献   

12.
Abstract— The Lockne crater in Sweden is a marine‐target crater, formed in a shelf sea, approximately 460 Ma ago. The crater structure consists of an inner crater surrounded by an outer, inclined surface that extends to almost 12 km from the center. Marine craters differ in several respects from craters formed on land. One special feature is the formation of resurge gullies excavated by the erosional force of the resurging sea water after the impact. The formation of these gullies strongly depends on the ratio crater‐rim height to water depth, as well as on the size of the impact structure. Such gullies are known from very few marine‐target craters. At the Lockne impact site, four gullies are identified, each of which cuts radially through the rim of the outer crater. The rapid collapse of that part of the crater cavity, which formed in the seawater, resulted in forceful flooding of the crater. The resurging seawater not only contained fallback‐ejecta; on its way towards the cavity on the sea‐bottom it incorporated fractured lithologies from the sea‐bottom as well. This entrained material disintegrated during transport and constitutes today the dominantly monomict lower part of the resurge sequence. The resurge flood was highly turbulent, highly erosive, and developed to a probable hyperconcentrated flow or a possible water flood. The erosion in the gullies proceeded as headward erosion down to the transition zone between the brecciated and the less disintegrated crystalline basement.  相似文献   

13.
Abstract— The 40 km wide Araguainha structure in central Brazil is a shallowly eroded impact crater that presents unique insights into the final stages of complex crater formation. The dominant structural features preserved at Araguainha relate directly to the centripetal movement of the target rocks during the collapse of the transient cavity. Slumping of the transient cavity walls resulted in inward‐verging inclined folds and a km‐scale anticline in the outer ring of the structure. The folding stage was followed by radial and concentric faulting, with downward displacement of kilometer‐scale blocks around the crater rim. The central uplift records evidence for km‐scale upward movement of crystalline basement rocks from the transient cavity floor, and lateral moment of sedimentary target rocks detached from the cavity walls. Much of the structural grain in the central uplift relates to structural stacking of km‐scale thrust sheets of sedimentary strata onto the core of crystalline basement rocks. Outward‐plunging radial folds indicate tangential oblate shortening of the strata during the imbrication of the thrust sheets. Each individual sheet records an early stage of folding and thickening due to non‐coaxial strains, shortly before sheet imbrication. We attribute this folding and thickening phase to the kilometer‐scale inward movement of the target strata from the transient cavity walls to the central uplift. The outer parts of the central uplift record additional outward movement of the target rocks, possibly related to the collapse of the central uplift. An inner ring structure at 10–12 km from the crater center marks the extent of the deformation related to the outward movement of the target rocks.  相似文献   

14.
The extent of impact‐generated hydrothermal activity in the 24 km sized Ries impact structure has been controversially discussed. To date, mineralogical and isotopic investigations point to a restriction of hydrothermal activity to the impact‐melt bearing breccias, specifically the crater‐fill suevite. Here, we present new petrographic, geochemical, and isotopic data of postimpact carbonate deposits, which indicate a hydrothermal activity more extended than previously assumed. Specifically, carbonates of the Erbisberg, a spring mound located upon the inner crystalline ring of the crater, show travertine facies types not seen in any of the previously investigated sublacustrine soda lake spring mounds of the Ries basin. In particular, the streamer carbonates, which result from the encrustation of microbial filaments in subaerial spring effluents between 60 and 70 °C, are characteristic of a hydrothermal origin. While much of the primary geochemical and isotopic signatures in the mound carbonates have been obliterated by diagenesis, a postimpact calcite vein from brecciated gneiss of the subsurface crater floor revealed a flat rare earth element pattern with a clear positive Eu anomaly, indicating a hydrothermal fluid convection in the crater basement. Finally, the strontium isotope stratigraphic correlation of the travertine mound with the crater basin succession suggests a hydrothermal activity for about 250,000 yr after the impact, which would be much longer than previously assumed.  相似文献   

15.
Abstract— The Lockne impact event took place in a Middle Ordovician (455 Ma) epicontinental sea. The impact resulted in an at least 13.5 km wide, concentric crater in the sea floor. Lockne is one of very few locations where parts of an ejecta layer have been preserved outside the crater structure. The ejecta from the Lockne impact rests on progressively higher stratigraphic levels with increasing distance from the crater, hence forming a slightly inclined discontinuity surface in the pre‐impact strata. We report on a ~30 cm thick sandy layer at Hallen, 45 km south of the crater centre. This layer has a fining upward sequence in its lower part, followed by low‐angle cross‐laminations indicating two opposite current directions. It is rich in quartz grains with planar deformation features and contains numerous, up to 15 cm large, granite clasts from the crystalline basement at the Lockne impact site. The layer is within a sequence dated to the Baltoniodus gerdae conodont subzone. The dating is corroborated by chitinozoans indicating the latest Kukruse time below and the late Idavere above the impact layer. According to the chitinozoans biostratigraphy, some erosion may have occurred because of deposition of the impact layer. The Hallen outcrop, today 45 km from the centre of the Lockne crater, is at present the most distant accessible occurrence of ejecta from the Lockne impact. It is also the most distant location so far found where the resurge of water towards the crater has affected the bottom sediments. A greater crater diameter than hitherto assumed, thus representing greater impact energy, might explain the extent of the ejecta blanket. Fluidisation of ejecta, to be expected at a marine‐target impact, might furthermore have facilitated the wide distribution of ejecta.  相似文献   

16.
Shock metamorphic features at the Saarijärvi (D > 2 km) and Söderfjärden (D = 6.5 km) structures in Finland have so far only been studied tentatively, although both are considered to be proven impact structures. This work presents the first detailed universal stage study of planar deformation features (PDFs), feather feature lamellae (FFL), and planar fractures (PFs) in quartz grains from a polymict impact breccia dike from Söderfjärden, and from sedimentary crater‐fill rocks from Saarijärvi. Planar microstructures, particularly PDFs, are very rare and poorly developed or preserved in Saarijärvi, whereas in Söderfjärden they are much more common and well defined. Miller–Bravais indices of the planar microstructures in both Saarijärvi and Söderfjärden are indicative of relatively low‐shock pressure but high shear conditions, only compatible with an impact origin for these structures. Although a Proterozoic age for Saarijärvi cannot be ruled out, the observations of shock features throughout the sedimentary crater‐fill sequence and a brecciated sedimentary dike below the crater floor are more consistent with a Lower Cambrian (or younger) impact age.  相似文献   

17.
Abstract— The well‐preserved state and excellent exposure at the 39 Ma Haughton impact structure, 23 km in diameter, allows a clearer picture to be made of the nature and distribution of hydrothermal deposits within mid‐size complex impact craters. A moderate‐ to low‐temperature hydrothermal system was generated at Haughton by the interaction of groundwaters with the hot impact melt breccias that filled the interior of the crater. Four distinct settings and styles of hydrothermal mineralization are recognized at Haughton: a) vugs and veins within the impact melt breccias, with an increase in intensity of alteration towards the base; b) cementation of brecciated lithologies in the interior of the central uplift; c) intense veining around the heavily faulted and fractured outer margin of the central uplift; and d) hydrothermal pipe structures or gossans and mineralization along fault surfaces around the faulted crater rim. Each setting is associated with a different suite of hydrothermal minerals that were deposited at different stages in the development of the hydrothermal system. Minor, early quartz precipitation in the impact melt breccias was followed by the deposition of calcite and marcasite within cavities and fractures, plus minor celestite, barite, and fluorite. This occurred at temperatures of at least 200 °C and down to ?100–120 °C. Hydrothermal circulation through the faulted crater rim with the deposition of calcite, quartz, marcasite, and pyrite, occurred at similar temperatures. Quartz mineralization within breccias of the interior of the central uplift occurred in two distinct episodes (?250 down to ?90 °C, and <60 °C). With continued cooling (<90 °C), calcite and quartz were precipitated in vugs and veins within the impact melt breccias. Calcite veining around the outer margin of the central uplift occurred at temperatures of ?150 °C down to <60 °C. Mobilization of hydrocarbons from the country rocks occurred during formation of the higher temperature calcite veins (>80 °C). Appreciation of the structural features of impact craters has proven to be key to understanding the distribution of hydrothermal deposits at Haughton.  相似文献   

18.
Siljan, central Sweden, is the largest known impact structure in Europe. It was formed at about 380 Ma, in the late Devonian period. The structure has been heavily eroded to a level originally located underneath the crater floor, and to date, important questions about the original size and morphology of Siljan remain unanswered. Here we present the results of a shock barometry study of quartz‐bearing surface and drill core samples combined with numerical modeling using iSALE. The investigated 13 bedrock granitoid samples show that the recorded shock pressure decreases with increasing depth from 15 to 20 GPa near the (present) surface, to 10–15 GPa at 600 m depth. A best‐fit model that is consistent with observational constraints relating to the present size of the structure, the location of the downfaulted sediments, and the observed surface and vertical shock barometry profiles is presented. The best‐fit model results in a final crater (rim‐to‐rim) diameter of ~65 km. According to our simulations, the original Siljan impact structure would have been a peak‐ring crater. Siljan was formed in a mixed target of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks overlaying crystalline basement. Our modeling suggests that, at the time of impact, the sedimentary sequence was approximately 3 km thick. Since then, there has been around 4 km of erosion of the structure.  相似文献   

19.
Fluid inclusions studies in quartz and calcite in samples from the ICDP‐Chicxulub drill core Yaxcopoil‐1 (Yax‐1) have revealed compelling evidence for impact‐induced hydrothermal alteration. Fluid circulation through the melt breccia and the underlying sedimentary rocks was not homogeneous in time and space. The formation of euhedral quartz crystals in vugs hosted by Cretaceous limestones is related to the migration of hot (>200 °C), highly saline, metal‐rich, hydrocarbon‐bearing brines. Hydrocarbons present in some inclusions in quartz are assumed to derive from cracking of pre‐impact organic matter. The center of the crater is assumed to be the source of the hot quartz‐forming brines. Fluid inclusions in abundant newly‐formed calcite indicate lower cyrstallization temperatures (75–100 °C). Calcite crystallization is likely related to a later stage of hydrothermal alteration. Calcite precipitated from saline fluids, most probably from formation water. Carbon and oxygen isotope compositions and REE distributions in calcites and carbonate host rocks suggest that the calcite‐forming fluids have achieved close equilibrium conditions with the Cretaceous limestones. The precipitation of calcite may be related to the convection of local pore fluids, possibly triggered by impact‐induced conductive heating of the sediments.  相似文献   

20.
Abstract— Large impact crater formation is an important geologic process that is not fully understood. The current paradigm for impact crater formation is based on models and observations of impacts in homogeneous targets. Real targets are rarely uniform; for example, the majority of Earth's surface is covered by sedimentary rocks and/or a water layer. The ubiquity of layering across solar system bodies makes it important to understand the effect target properties have on the cratering process. To advance understanding of the mechanics of crater collapse, and the effect of variations in target properties on crater formation, the first “Bridging the Gap” workshop recommended that geological observation and numerical modeling focussed on mid‐sized (15–30 km diameter) craters on Earth. These are large enough to be complex; small enough to be mapped, surveyed and modelled at high resolution; and numerous enough for the effects of target properties to be potentially disentangled from the effects of other variables. In this paper, we compare observations and numerical models of three 18–26 km diameter craters formed in different target lithology: Ries, Germany; Haughton, Canada; and El'gygytgyn, Russia. Based on the first‐order assumption that the impact energy was the same in all three impacts we performed numerical simulations of each crater to construct a simple quantitative model for mid‐sized complex crater formation in a subaerial, mixed crystalline‐sedimentary target. We compared our results with interpreted geological profiles of Ries and Haughton, based on detailed new and published geological mapping and published geophysical surveys. Our combined observational and numerical modeling work suggests that the major structural differences between each crater can be explained by the difference in thickness of the pre‐impact sedimentary cover in each case. We conclude that the presence of an inner ring at Ries, and not at Haughton, is because basement rocks that are stronger than the overlying sediments are sufficiently close to the surface that they are uplifted and overturned during excavation and remain as an uplifted ring after modification and post‐impact erosion. For constant impact energy, transient and final crater diameters increase with increasing sediment thickness.  相似文献   

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