Tectonics and oil and gas potentials of the Kolyma and Primor'ye lowlands and adjacent shelves |
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| Abstract: | The impact of gigantic meteorites momentarily creates extremely high pressures and temperatures, leading to the formation of distinctive objects — impact breccias and impactites — at the points where they fall. The Zhamanshin crater is one such place. This annular structure has a diameter of about 10 km, contoured by a low rim made up of a body of shattered Paleozoic rocks thrown out from the ring's center, from depths exceeding 100 - 200 m. Among these breccias have been found pieces and lenticular bodies of remelted rocks — impactites, called zhamanshinites. These thermally altered rocks from a series ranging from baked clays to cinder-like, partly recrystallized substances, glass, and black drops and spattered droplets (up to 1 - 5 cm) of isotropic glass that undoubtedly hardened as they fell through the air. The refused neogenic substances formed by selective evaporation are characterized by a considerable deficit of K and Na, excess Al2O3 and SiO2, a lack of H2O, and a sharp predominance of Fe+2 over Fe+3. Their characteristic shape and distinctive structure and composition suggests that these remelted droplets are tektites, which were called irgizites when first found in the USSR. Their occurrence in the meteorite crater confirms the idea of a genetic unity between tektites and impactites. Selective evaporation of the more volatile elements is characteristic of the surfaces of small planets lacking an atmosphere, but is not characteristic of the earth's surface. The processes and substances occurring at the impact points of gigantic meteorites are therefore unique on the earth, but highly typical of the surfaces of the Moon, Mars, Mercury, and other relatively small celestial bodies. |
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