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1.
Abstract— Field studies and analytical scanning electron microscopy indicate that a hydrothermal system was created by the interaction of water with hot, impact‐generated rocks following formation of the 24 km diameter, 23 Ma Haughton impact structure. Hydrothermal alteration is recognized in two settings: within polymict impact breccias overlying the central portion of the structure, and within localized pipes in impact‐generated concentric fault systems. The intra‐breccia alteration comprises three varieties of cavity and fracture filling: (a) sulfide with carbonate, (b) sulfate, and (c) carbonate. These are accompanied by subordinate celestite, barite, fluorite, quartz and marcasite. Selenite is also developed, particularly in the lower levels of the impact breccia sheet. The fault‐related hydrothermal alteration occurs in 1–7 m diameter subvertical pipes that are exposed for lengths of up 20 m. The pipes are defined by a monomict quartz‐carbonate breccia showing pronounced Fe‐hydroxide alteration. Associated sulfides include marcasite, pyrite and chalcopyrite. We propose three distinct stages in the evolution of the hydrothermal system: (1) Early Stage (>200 °C), with the precipitation of quartz (vapor phase dominated); (2) Main Stage (200‐100 °C), with the development of a two‐phase (vapor plus liquid) zone, leading to calcite, celestite, barite, marcasite and fluorite precipitation; and (3) Late Stage (<100 °C), with selenite and fibroferrite development through liquid phase‐dominated precipitation. We estimate that it took several tens of thousands of years to cool below 50 °C following impact. During this time, Haughton supported a 14 km diameter crater lake and subsurface water system, providing a warmer, wetter niche relative to the surrounding terrain. The results reveal how understanding the internal structure of impact craters is necessary in order to determine their plumbing and cooling systems.  相似文献   

2.
Abstract— Contrary to the previous interpretation of a single allochthonous impactite lithology, combined field, optical, and analytical scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies have revealed the presence of a series of impactites at the Haughton impact structure. In the crater interior, there is a consistent upward sequence from parautochthonous target rocks overlain by parautochthonous lithic (monomict) breccias, through allochthonous lithic (polymict) breccia, into pale grey allochthonous impact melt breccias. The groundmass of the pale grey impact melt breccias consists of microcrystalline calcite, silicate impact melt glass, and anhydrite. Analytical data and microtextures indicate that these phases represent a series of impact‐generated melts that were molten at the time of, and following, deposition. Impact melt glass clasts are present in approximately half of the samples studied. Consideration of the groundmass phases and impact glass clasts reveal that impactites of the crater interior contain shock‐melted sedimentary material from depths of >920 to <1880 m in the pre‐impact target sequence. Two principal impactites have been recognized in the near‐surface crater rim region of Haughton. Pale yellow‐brown allochthonous impact melt breccias and megablocks are overlain by pale grey allochthonous impact melt breccias. The former are derived from depths of >200 to <760 m and are interpreted as remnants of the continuous ejecta blanket. The pale grey impact melt breccias, although similar to the impact melt breccias of the crater interior, are more carbonate‐rich and do not appear to have incorporated clasts from the crystalline basement. Thus, the spatial distribution of the crater‐fill impactites at Haughton, the stratigraphic succession from target rocks to allochthonous impactites, the recognition of large volumes of impact melt breccias, and their probable original volume are all analogous to characteristics of coherent impact melt layers in comparatively sized structures formed in crystalline targets.  相似文献   

3.
Abstract— Detailed field mapping has revealed the presence of a series of intra‐crater sedimentary deposits within the interior of the Haughton impact structure, Devon Island, Canadian High Arctic. Coarse‐grained, well‐sorted, pale gray lithic sandstones (reworked impact melt breccias) unconformably overlie pristine impact melt breccias and attest to an episode of erosion, during which time significant quantities of impact melt breccias were removed. The reworked impact melt breccias are, in turn, unconformably overlain by paleolacustrine sediments of the Miocene Haughton Formation. Sediments of the Haughton Formation were clearly derived from pre‐impact lower Paleozoic target rocks of the Allen Bay Formation, which form the crater rim in the northern, western, and southern regions of the Haughton structure. Collectively, these field relationships indicate that the Haughton Formation was deposited up to several million years after the formation of the Haughton crater and that they do not, therefore, represent an immediate, post‐impact crater lake deposit. This is consistent with new isotopic dating of impactites from Haughton that indicate an Eocene age for the impact event (Sherlock et al. 2005). In addition, isolated deposits of post‐Miocene intra‐crater glacigenic and fluvioglacial sediments were found lying unconformably over remnants of the Haughton Formation, impact melt breccias, and other pre‐impact target rock formations. These deposits provide clear evidence for glaciation at the Haughton crater. The wealth and complexity of geological and climatological information preserved as intra‐crater deposits at Haughton suggests that craters on Mars with intra‐crater sedimentary records might present us with similar opportunities, but also possibly significant challenges.  相似文献   

4.
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   

5.
Abstract— The Haughton impact structure has been the focus of systematic, multi‐disciplinary field and laboratory research activities over the past several years. Regional geological mapping has refined the sedimentary target stratigraphy and constrained the thickness of the sedimentary sequence at the time of impact to ?1880 m. New 40Ar–39Ar dates place the impact event at ?39 Ma, in the late Eocene. Haughton has an apparent crater diameter of ?23 km, with an estimated rim (final crater) diameter of ?16 km. The structure lacks a central topographic peak or peak ring, which is unusual for craters of this size. Geological mapping and sampling reveals that a series of different impactites are present at Haughton. The volumetrically dominant crater‐fill impact melt breccias contain a calcite‐anhydrite‐silicate glass groundmass, all of which have been shown to represent impact‐generated melt phases. These impactites are, therefore, stratigraphically and genetically equivalent to coherent impact melt rocks present in craters developed in crystalline targets. The crater‐fill impactites provided a heat source that drove a post‐impact hydrothermal system. During this time, Haughton would have represented a transient, warm, wet microbial oasis. A subsequent episode of erosion, during which time substantial amounts of impactites were removed, was followed by the deposition of intra‐crater lacustrine sediments of the Haughton Formation during the Miocene. Present‐day intra‐crater lakes and ponds preserve a detailed paleoenvironmental record dating back to the last glaciation in the High Arctic. Modern modification of the landscape is dominated by seasonal regional glacial and niveal melting, and local periglacial processes. The impact processing of target materials improved the opportunities for colonization and has provided several present‐day habitats suitable for microbial life that otherwise do not exist in the surrounding terrain.  相似文献   

6.
Abstract— The well‐preserved Kärdla impact crater, on Hiiumaa Island, Estonia, is a 4 km diameter structure formed in a shallow Ordovician sea ?455 Ma ago into a target composed of thin (?150 m) unconsolidated sedimentary layer above a crystalline basement composed of migmatite granites, amphibolites and gneisses. The fractured and crushed amphibolites in the crater area are strongly altered and replaced with secondary chloritic minerals. The most intensive chloritization is found in permeable breccias and heavily shattered basement around and above the central uplift. Alteration is believed to have resulted from convective flow of hydrothermal fluids through the central areas of the crater. Chloritic mineral associations suggest formation temperatures of 100–300 °C, in agreement with the most frequent quartz fluid inclusion homogenization temperatures of 150–300 °C in allochthonous breccia. The rather low salinity of fluids in Kärdla crater (<13 wt% NaCleq) suggests that the hydrothermal system was recharged either by infiltration of meteoric waters from the crater rim walls raised above sea level after the impact, or by invasion of sea water through the disturbed sedimentary cover and fractured crystalline basement. The well‐developed hydrothermal system in Kärdla crater shows that the thermal history of the shock‐heated and uplifted rocks in the central crater area, rather than cooling of impact melt or suevite sheets, controlled the distribution and intensity of the impact‐induced hydrothermal processes.  相似文献   

7.
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View of impactites surrounding the Haughton River valley from atop an impact melt rock outcrop at the Haughton impact structure, Nunavut, Canada. The inset on the left is a calcite‐marcasite vug formed in the post‐impact hydrothermal system and later weathered at low temperatures. A Landsat context image in the lower left shows the location of the vug within the impact structure. For details, see the article by Rebecca Greenberger et al. on p. 2274.  相似文献   

8.
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   

9.
Abstract— The ～400 Ma old Ilyinets impact structure was formed in the Precambrian basement of the Ukrainian Shield and is now mostly covered by Quaternary sediments. Various impact breccias and melts are exposed in its southern section. The crater is a complex structure with a central uplift that is surrounded by an annular deposit of breccias and melt rocks. In the annulus, brecciated basement rocks are overlain by up to 80 m of glass-poor suevitic breccia, which is overlain (and partly intercalated) by glass-rich suevite with a thickness of up to 130 m. Impact-melt rocks occur within and on top of the suevites—in some cases in the form of devitrified bomb-shaped impact-glass fragments. We have studied the petrographic and geochemical characteristics of 31, mostly shocked, target rock samples (granites, gneisses, and one amphibolite) obtained from drill cores within the structure, and impact breccias and melt rock samples from drill cores and surface exposures. Multiple sets of planar deformation features (PDFs) are common in quartz, potassium feldspar, and plagioclase of the shocked target rocks. The breccias comprise more or less devitrified impact melt with shocked clasts. The impact-melt rocks (“bombs”) show abundant vesicles and, in some cases, glass is still present as brownish patches and schlieren. All impact breccias (including the melt rocks) are strongly altered and have significantly elevated K contents and lower Na contents than the target rocks. The alteration could have occurred in an impact-induced hydrothermal system. The bomb-shaped melt rocks have lower Mg and Ca contents than other rock types at the crater. Compared to target rocks, only minor enrichments of siderophile element contents (e.g., Ni, Co, Ir) in impact-melt rocks were found.  相似文献   

10.
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   

11.
Riachão, located at S7°42′/W46°38′ in Maranhão State, northeastern Brazil, is a complex impact structure of about 4.1 km diameter, formed in Pennsylvanian to Permian sedimentary rocks of the Parnaíba Basin sequence. Although its impact origin was already proposed in the 1970s, information on its geology and shock features is still scarce in the literature. We present here the main geomorphological and geological characteristics of the Riachão impact structure obtained by integrated geophysical and remote sensing analysis, as well as geological field work and petrographic analysis. The identified lithostratigraphic units consist of different levels of the Pedra de Fogo Formation and, possibly, the Piauí Formation. Our petrographic analysis confirms the presence of shock‐diagnostic planar microdeformation structures in quartz grains of sandstone from the central uplift as evidence for an impact origin of the Riachão structure. The absence of crater‐filling impact breccias and melt rocks, shatter cones, as well as the restricted occurrence of microscopic shock effects, suggests that intense and relatively deep erosion has occurred since crater formation.  相似文献   

12.
Abstract— The central uplift of the 40-km wide Araguainha impact structure, Brazil, consists of a ring, about 8 km in diameter, of up to 150-m high blocks of Devonian Furnas sandstone, which surround a central depression of elliptical shape (4.5 × 3.0 km). The depression is occupied by a pre-Devonian alkali-feldspar granite, shocked by pressures of 20–25 GPa and permeated by cataclastic shear zones and dikes of shocked granitic material. The granite is flanked and partly covered by several impact breccias: (1) Impact breccia with melt matrix overlies the granite in places and forms hills, bordering the granitic center in the S and SW. It is chemically identical with the granite and consists of thermally altered granitic clasts in a matrix of sanidine, quartz, biotite, muscovite, chlorite and riebeckite. (2) Polymict breccias form hills which border the central depression in the N and NW. Components are unshocked and shocked sediments, shock-melted sandstone, shocked granite and shock melt rocks in irregular masses and individual bodies, embedded in a fine-grained matrix. 40Ar/39Ar analyses show that the melt rocks solidified 246 Ma ago, indicating that the impact occurred at near the Permian-Triassic boundary, possibly when the area was covered by a shallow sea. The present chemistry and petrography of the melt rocks suggest that by reacting with seawater granitic impact melt was depleted of K and Rb and enriched in Na, and that later diagenetic processes produced replacement of feldspar by quartz and deposition of hematite. (3) Monomict breccias, consisting of unshocked, shocked and shock-fused quartz sandstones, form hills which surround the central depression in the SE and S. The Araguainha structure is an eroded complex crater, produced by an impact, 246 Ma ago. The depth of excavation was about 2.4 km, comprising Permian, Permo-Carboniferous and Devonian sediments and the granitic basement. The diameter of the transient crater was about 24 km. Erosion and weathering have removed most of the original crater fill and ejecta deposits, with the exception of remnants, preserved in the central uplift.  相似文献   

13.
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14.
Meteorite impacts on Earth and Mars can generate hydrothermal systems that alter the primary mineralogies of rocks and provide suitable environments for microbial colonization. We investigate a calcite–marcasite‐bearing vug at the ~23 km diameter Haughton impact structure, Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada, using imaging spectroscopy of the outcrop in the field (0.65–1.1 μm) and samples in the laboratory (0.4–2.5 μm), point spectroscopy (0.35–2.5 μm), major element chemistry, and X‐ray diffraction analyses. The mineral assemblages mapped at the outcrop include marcasite; marcasite with minor gypsum and jarosite; fibroferrite and copiapite with minor gypsum and melanterite; gypsum, Fe3+ oxides, and jarosite; and calcite, gypsum, clay, microcline, and quartz. Hyperspectral mapping of alteration phases shows spatial patterns that illuminate changes in alteration conditions and formation of specific mineral phases. Marcasite formed from the postimpact hydrothermal system under reducing conditions, while subsequent weathering oxidized the marcasite at low temperatures and water/rock ratios. The acidic fluids resulting from the oxidation collected on flat‐lying portions of the outcrop, precipitating fibroferrite + copiapite. That assemblage then likely dissolved, and the changing chemistry and pH resulting from interaction with the calcite‐rich host rock formed gypsum‐bearing red coatings. These results have implications for understanding water–rock interactions and habitabilities at this site and on Mars.  相似文献   

15.
The Terny impact structure, located in central Ukraine, displays a variety of diagnostic indicators of shock metamorphism, including shatter cones, planar deformation features in quartz, diaplectic glass, selective melting of minerals, and whole rock melting. The structure has been modified by erosion and subsequently buried by recent sediments. Although there are no natural outcrops of the deformed basement rocks within the area, mining exploration has provided surface and subsurface access to the structure, exposing impact melt rocks, shocked parautochthonous target rocks, and allochthonous impact breccias, including impact melt‐bearing breccias similar to suevites observed at the Ries structure. We have collected and studied samples from surface and subsurface exposures to a depth of approximately 750 m below the surface. This analysis indicates the Terny crater is centered on geographic coordinates 48.13° N, 33.52° E. The center location and the distribution of shock pressures constrain the transient crater diameter to be no less than approximately 8.4 km. Using widely accepted morphometric scaling relations, we estimate the pre‐erosional rim diameter of Terny crater to be approximately 16–19 km, making it close in original size to the well‐preserved El'gygytgyn crater in Siberia. Comparison with El'gygytgyn yields useful insights into the original morphology of the Terny crater and indicates that the amount of erosion Terny experienced prior to burial probably does not exceed 320 m.  相似文献   

16.
Abstract— The results of a systematic field mapping campaign at the Haughton impact structure have revealed new information about the tectonic evolution of mid‐size complex impact structures. These studies reveal that several structures are generated during the initial compressive outward‐directed growth of the transient cavity during the excavation stage of crater formation: (1) sub‐vertical radial faults and fractures; (2) sub‐horizontal bedding parallel detachment faults; and (3) minor concentric faults and fractures. Uplift of the transient cavity floor toward the end of the excavation stage produces a central uplift. Compressional inward‐directed deformation results in the duplication of strata along thrust faults and folds. It is notable that Haughton lacks a central topographic peak or peak ring. The gravitational collapse of transient cavity walls involves the complex interaction of a series of interconnected radial and concentric faults. While the outermost concentric faults dip in toward the crater center, the majority of the innermost faults at Haughton dip away from the center. Complex interactions between an outward‐directed collapsing central uplift and inward collapsing crater walls during the final stages of crater modification resulted in a structural ring of uplifted, intensely faulted (sub‐) vertical and/or overturned strata at a radial distance from the crater center of ?5.0–6.5 km. Converging flow during the collapse of transient cavity walls was accommodated by the formation of several structures: (1) sub‐vertical radial faults and folds; (2) positive flower structures and chaotically brecciated ridges; (3) rollover anticlines in the hanging‐walls of major listric faults; and (4) antithetic faults and crestal collapse grabens. Oblique strike‐slip (i.e., centripetal) movement along concentric faults also accommodated strain during the final stages of readjustment during the crater modification stage. It is clear that deformation during collapse of the transient cavity walls at Haughton was brittle and localized along discrete fault planes separating kilometer‐size blocks.  相似文献   

17.
Abstract— The central allochthonous polymict breccia of the Haughton impact structure is up to about 90 m thick and as much as 7.3 km in radial extent. It has been analyzed with respect to modal composition, grain-size characteristics, and degree of shock metamorphism for the grain-size ranges 10–～ 50, 1–10, 0.03–1, and <0.03 mm. The mineralogy of the breccia matrix is dominated by dolomite and calcite, with minor amounts of quartz, other silicate minerals, and rare melt particles. The following lithic clasts have been identified in the 1–10 mm size fraction (averages of vol.% given in parentheses): dolomitic rocks (51), limestones (29), crystalline rocks (10), sandstones and siltstones (3.7), chert (0.7), melt particles (1.9). The mineral clasts (1–0.03 mm) comprise (with decreasing frequency) dolomite, quartz, calcite, feldspar, biotite, amphibole, garnet, opaques, rounded quartz derived from sandstones and accessory minerals. Lithic and mineral clasts display various degrees of shock. Fragments of crystalline rocks are shocked in the 0–60 GPa range; whole rock melts from the crystalline basement are lacking and unshocked rocks are very rare. In contrast, shock-melted sandstones, shales, and chert were found in most samples. Large clasts of these melt rocks are highly concentrated near the center of the crater. Otherwise, no distinct change of the modal composition with radial range has been observed except that the frequency of limestone clasts increases slightly with radial range. The breccia near the center is more fine-grained than that beyond about 1 km radius and the sorting parameter increases somewhat with radial range. Except for the high concentration of shock-melted sedimentary rocks and highly shocked crystalline rocks near the center of the crater, the distribution of shock stages within the lithic clast population is quite uniform throughout the breccia formation. We conclude that the breccia constituents are derived from the lower part of the target stratigraphy (deeper than about 800 m) and that the total depth of excavation at Haughton is in the order of 2000 m. The mixing of sedimentary rocks of the Eleanor River Formation, Lower Ordovician, and Cambrian (～850 m thickness) with crystalline basement rocks is quite thorough and homogeneous throughout the breccia lens, at least for the analyzed part. This may require an air-borne mode of emplacement for the upper section of the breccia in analogy to the fall-back suevite in the Ries crater. A calculation of the excavation (Z-model) and of the shock pressure attenuation based on reasonable estimates of the energy and crater geometry of the Haughton impact confirms the observed maximum depth of excavation of about 2 km. Shock-melted crystalline basement rocks, if present at all, must be confined to the very center of the structure below the excavation cavity.  相似文献   

18.
The Ramgarh structure is a morphological landmark in southeastern Rajasthan, India. Its 200 m high and 3.5–4 km wide annular collar has provoked many hypotheses regarding its origin, including impact. Here, we document planar deformation features, planar fractures, and feather features in quartz grains of the central part of the Ramgarh structure, which confirm its impact origin. The annular collar does not mark the crater rim but represents the outer part of a central uplift of an approximately 10 km diameter complex impact structure. The apparent crater rim is exposed as a low‐angle normal fault and can be traced as lineaments in remote sensing imagery. The central uplift shows a stratigraphic uplift of ~1000 m and is rectangular in shape. It is dissected by numerous faults that are co‐genetic with the formation of the central uplift. The central uplift has a bilateral symmetry along an SW‐NE axis, where a large strike‐slip fault documents a strong horizontal shear component. This direction corresponds to the assumed impact trajectory from the SW toward the NE. The uprange sector is characterized by concentric reverse faults, whereas radial faults dominate downrange. Sandstones of the central uplift are infiltrated by Fe‐oxides and suggest an impact‐induced hydrothermal mineralization overprint. The impact may have occurred into a shallow water environment as indicated by soft‐sediment deformation features, observed near the apparent crater rim, and the deposition of a diamictite layer above them. Gastropods embedded in the diamictite have Middle Jurassic age and may indicate the time of the impact.  相似文献   

19.
Abstract Petrographic, electron microprobe, and Raman spectrometric analyses of Yaxcopoil‐1 core samples from the Chicxulub crater indicate that the impact generated a hydrothermal system. Relative textural and vein crosscutting relations and systematic distribution of alteration products reveal a progression of the hydrothermal event in space and time and provide constraints on the nature of the fluids. The earliest calcite, halite, and gaylussite suggest that the impactite sequence was initially permeated by a low temperature saline brine. Subsequent development of a higher temperature hydrothermal regime is indicated by thermal metamorphic diopside‐hedenbergite (Aeg3Fs18‐33En32‐11Wo47‐53) after primary augite and widespread Na‐K for Ca metasomatic alkali exchange in plagioclase. Hydrothermal sphene, apatite, magnetite + (bornite), as well as early calcite (combined 3 to 8 vol%) were introduced with metasomatic feldspar. A lower temperature regime characterized by smectite after probable primary glass, secondary chlorite, and other pre‐existing mafic minerals, as well as very abundant calcite veins and open‐space fillings, extensively overprinted the early hydrothermal stage. The composition of early and late hydrothermal minerals show that the solution was chlorine‐rich (Cl/F >10) and that its Fe/Mg ratio and oxidation state increased substantially (4 to 5 logfO2 units) as temperature decreased through time. The most altered zone in the impactite sequence occurs 30 m above the impact melt. The lack of mineralogical zoning about the impact melt and convective modeling constraints suggest that this unit was too thin at Yaxcopoil‐1 to provide the necessary heat to drive fluids and implies that the hydrothermal system resulted from the combined effects of a pre‐existing saline brine and heat that traveled to the Yaxcopoil‐1 site from adjacent areas where the melt sheet was thicker. Limonite after iron oxides is more common toward the top of the sequence and suggests that the impactite section was subjected to weathering before deposition of the Tertiary marine cover. In addition, scarce latest anatase stringers, chalcopyrite, and barite in vugs, francolite after apatite, and recrystallized halite are the likely products of limited post‐hydrothermal ambient‐temperature diagenesis, or ocean and/or meteoric water circulation.  相似文献   

20.
The 90 km diameter, late Triassic Manicouagan impact structure of Québec, Canada, is a well-preserved, undeformed complex crater possessing an anorthositic central uplift and a 55 km diameter melt sheet. As such, it provides a valuable terrestrial analogue for impact structures developed on other planetary bodies, especially the Moon and Mars, which are currently the focus of exploration initiatives. The scientific value of Manicouagan has recently been enhanced due to the production, between 1994 and 2006, of ∼18 km of drill core from 38 holes by the mineral exploration industry. Three of these holes are in excess of 1.5 km deep, with the deepest reaching 1.8 km. Here we combine recent field work, sampling and the drill core data with previous knowledge to provide insight into processes occurring at Manicouagan and, by inference, within extraterrestrial impact structures. Four areas of comparative planetology are discussed: impact melt sheets, central uplifts, impact-generated hydrothermal regimes and footwall breccias. Human training and instrument testing opportunities are also considered. The drill core reveals that the impact melt and clast-bearing impact melts in the centre of the structure reach thicknesses of 1.4 km. The 1.1 km thick impact melt has undergone differentiation to yield a lower monzodiorite, a transitional quartz monzodiorite and an upper quartz monzonite sequence. This calls into question the previous citing of Manicouagan as an exemplar of a relatively large crater possessing an undifferentiated melt sheet, which was used as a rationale for assigning different composition lunar impact melts and clast-bearing impact melts to separate cratering events. The predominantly anorthositic central uplift at Manicouagan is comparable to certain lunar highlands material, with morphometric analogies to the King, Tycho, Pythagoras, Jackson, and Copernicus impact structures, which have similar diameters and uplift structure. Excellent exposure of the Manicouagan uplift facilitates mapping and an appraisal of its formation and collapse mechanisms, enhanced by drill core data from the centre of the structure. Recent field studies at the edge of the central island at Manicouagan, and multiple drill core sections through footwall lithologies, provide insight into allochthonous (clastic and suevitic) and autochthonous breccia formation, as well as shock effects. The hydrothermal regimes developed at Manicouagan are akin to systems proposed for Noachian (>3.5 Ga) Mars that involve alteration of impact melts via meteoritic and surface waters, with the generation of phyllosilicates, zeolites, hematite, sulfates and sulfides that can contribute to martian soil formation and sedimentation processes.  相似文献   

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