The Scientific Method an Investigation of Impact Craters
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Cross-References ASTEROID IMPACT Definition and Introduction History of Impact Cratering Studies
18 ASTEROID IMPACT Tedesco, E. F., Noah, P. V., Noah, M., and Price, S. D., 2002. The identification and confirmation of impact structures on supplemental IRAS minor planet survey. The Astronomical Earth were developed: (a) crater morphology, (b) geo- 123 – Journal, , 1056 1085. physical anomalies, (c) evidence for shock metamor- Tholen, D. J., and Barucci, M. A., 1989. Asteroid taxonomy. In Binzel, R. P., Gehrels, T., and Matthews, M. S. (eds.), phism, and (d) the presence of meteorites or geochemical Asteroids II. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 298–315. evidence for traces of the meteoritic projectile – of which Yeomans, D., and Baalke, R., 2009. Near Earth Object Program. only (c) and (d) can provide confirming evidence. Remote Available from World Wide Web: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ sensing, including morphological observations, as well programs. as geophysical studies, cannot provide confirming evi- dence – which requires the study of actual rock samples. Cross-references Impacts influenced the geological and biological evolu- tion of our own planet; the best known example is the link Albedo between the 200-km-diameter Chicxulub impact structure Asteroid Impact Asteroid Impact Mitigation in Mexico and the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. Under- Asteroid Impact Prediction standing impact structures, their formation processes, Torino Scale and their consequences should be of interest not only to Earth and planetary scientists, but also to society in general. ASTEROID IMPACT History of impact cratering studies In the geological sciences, it has only recently been recog- Christian Koeberl nized how important the process of impact cratering is on Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria a planetary scale. -
Detecting and Avoiding Killer Asteroids
Target Earth! Detecting and Avoiding Killer Asteroids by Trudy E. Bell (Copyright 2013 Trudy E. Bell) ARTH HAD NO warning. When a mountain- above 2000°C and triggering earthquakes and volcanoes sized asteroid struck at tens of kilometers (miles) around the globe. per second, supersonic shock waves radiated Ocean water suctioned from the shoreline and geysered outward through the planet, shock-heating rocks kilometers up into the air; relentless tsunamis surged e inland. At ground zero, nearly half the asteroid’s kinetic energy instantly turned to heat, vaporizing the projectile and forming a mammoth impact crater within minutes. It also vaporized vast volumes of Earth’s sedimentary rocks, releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide and sulfur di- oxide into the atmosphere, along with heavy dust from both celestial and terrestrial rock. High-altitude At least 300,000 asteroids larger than 30 meters revolve around the sun in orbits that cross Earth’s. Most are not yet discovered. One may have Earth’s name written on it. What are engineers doing to guard our planet from destruction? winds swiftly spread dust and gases worldwide, blackening skies from equator to poles. For months, profound darkness blanketed the planet and global temperatures dropped, followed by intense warming and torrents of acid rain. From single-celled ocean plank- ton to the land’s grandest trees, pho- tosynthesizing plants died. Herbivores starved to death, as did the carnivores that fed upon them. Within about three years—the time it took for the mingled rock dust from asteroid and Earth to fall out of the atmosphere onto the ground—70 percent of species and entire genera on Earth perished forever in a worldwide mass extinction. -
Destination Moon
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19. Near-Earth Objects Chelyabinsk Meteor: 2013 ~0.5 Megaton Airburst ~1500 People Injured
Astronomy 241: Foundations of Astrophysics I 19. Near-Earth Objects Chelyabinsk Meteor: 2013 ~0.5 megaton airburst ~1500 people injured (C) Don Davis Asteroids 101 — B612 Foundation Great Daylight Fireball: 1972 Earthgrazer: The Great Daylight Fireball of 1972 Tunguska Meteor: 1908 Asteroid or comet: D ~ 40 m ~10 megaton airburst ~40 km destruction radius The Tunguska Impact Tunguska: The Largest Recent Impact Event Barringer Crater: ~50 ky BP M-type asteroid: D ~ 50 m ~10 megaton impact 1.2 km crater diameter Meteor Crater — Wikipedia Chicxulub Crater: ~65 My BP Asteroid: D ~ 10 km 180 km crater diameter Chicxulub Crater— Wikipedia Comets and Meteor Showers Comets shed dust and debris which slowly spread out as they move along the comet’s orbit. If the Earth encounters one of these trails, we get a Breakup of a Comet meteor shower. Meteor Stream Perseid Meteor Shower Raining Perseids Major Meteor Showers Forty Thousand Meteor Origins Across the Sky Known Potentially-Hazardous Objects Near-Earth object — Wikipedia Near-Earth object — Wikipedia Origin of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) ! WHAM Mars Some fragments wind up on orbits which are resonant with Jupiter. Their orbits grow more elliptical, finally entering the inner solar system. Wikipedia: Asteroid belt Asteroid Families Many asteroids are members of families; they have similar orbits and compositions (indicated by colors). Asteroid Belt Populations Inner belt asteroids (left) and families (right). Origin of Key Stages in the Evolution of the Asteroid Vesta Processed Family Members Crust Surface Magnesium-Sliicate Lavas Meteorites Mantle (Olivine) Iron-Nickle Core Stony Irons? As smaller bodies in the early Solar System Heavier elements sink to the Occasional impacts with other bodies fall together, the asteroid agglomerates. -
Brief History
CO n tJ} CO BRIEF HISTORY About 49,500 years ago an unbroken level plain stretched where you now stand. Out of the north a bright pinpoint of light arose rapidly Into a blazing sun as it approached this spot. Traveling nearly 43,000 miles per hour, with deafening sound and blinding light, a huge nickel-iron meteorite or > m N 3J cluster of such meteorites, weighing millions of tons, struck CD T) the solid rock of the level plain. With forces greater than any recorded nuclear explosion, the main mass was instantly con verted to a gaseous state, and a huge mushroom-shaped cloud arose far into the stratosphere. From this cloud rained meteoritic droplets mixed with rock debris. For miles around, every tree was flattened and no living creature survived. Before impact pieces of meteorite weighing up to a ton or more were stripped from the mass by friction of the lower at mosphere. Other pieces were thrown back out of the impact site. Layers of rock were flipped over, and blocks of rock- some as large as small houses—were blasted out. In ail, about 300 million tons of rock were displaced, much of It form ing the raised rim around the crater. The floor of the crater is 560 feet deep—equivalent to a 60-story building-and is more than 4,100 feet across; and the rim is more than 3 miles in circumference. If the Wash ington Monument were erected on the floor of the crater, the top would just about reach the level where you now stand. -
Impact Structures and Events – a Nordic Perspective
107 by Henning Dypvik1, Jüri Plado2, Claus Heinberg3, Eckart Håkansson4, Lauri J. Pesonen5, Birger Schmitz6, and Selen Raiskila5 Impact structures and events – a Nordic perspective 1 Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1047, Blindern, NO 0316 Oslo, Norway. E-mail: [email protected] 2 Department of Geology, University of Tartu, Vanemuise 46, 51014 Tartu, Estonia. 3 Department of Environmental, Social and Spatial Change, Roskilde University, P.O. Box 260, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark. 4 Department of Geography and Geology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 10, DK-1350 Copenhagen, Denmark. 5 Division of Geophysics, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 64, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland. 6 Department of Geology, University of Lund, Sölvegatan 12, SE-22362 Lund, Sweden. Impact cratering is one of the fundamental processes in are the main reason that the Nordic countries are generally well- the formation of the Earth and our planetary system, as mapped. reflected, for example in the surfaces of Mars and the Impact craters came into the focus about 20 years ago and the interest among the Nordic communities has increased during recent Moon. The Earth has been covered by a comparable years. The small Kaalijärv structure of Estonia was the first impact number of impact scars, but due to active geological structure to be confirmed in northern Europe (Table 1; Figures 1 and processes, weathering, sea floor spreading etc, the num- 7). First described in 1794 (Rauch), the meteorite origin of the crater ber of preserved and recognized impact craters on the field (presently 9 craters) was proposed much later in 1919 (Kalju- Earth are limited. -
New Clues from Earth's Most Elusive Impact Crater: Evidence of Reidite in Australasian Tektites from Thailand
See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321956231 New clues from Earth's most elusive impact crater: Evidence of reidite in Australasian tektites from Thailand Article in Geology · December 2017 DOI: 10.1130/G39711.1 CITATIONS READS 0 64 4 authors, including: Aaron J. Cavosie Timmons Erickson Curtin University Curtin University 100 PUBLICATIONS 2,285 CITATIONS 27 PUBLICATIONS 159 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE All content following this page was uploaded by Aaron J. Cavosie on 16 March 2018. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. New clues from Earth’s most elusive impact crater: Evidence of reidite in Australasian tektites from Thailand Aaron J. Cavosie1, Nicholas E. Timms1, Timmons M. Erickson2, and Christian Koeberl3,4 1The Institute for Geoscience Research (TIGeR), Department of Applied Geology, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6102, Australia 2Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association, Houston, Texas 77058, USA 3Natural History Museum, 1010 Vienna, Austria 4Department of Lithospheric Research, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria ABSTRACT in Australasian tektites from Thailand supports a Australasian tektites are enigmatic drops of siliceous impact melt found in an ~8000 × location for the source crater in Southeast Asia. ~13,000 km strewn field over Southeast Asia and Australia, including sites in both the Indian and Pacific oceans. These tektites formed only 790,000 yr ago from an impact crater estimated MUONG NONG–TYPE TEKTITES to be 40–100 km in diameter; yet remarkably, the young and presumably large structure Muong Nong–type tektites (MN-type, or lay- remains undiscovered. -
Pliocene Impact Crater Discovered in Colombia: Geological Evidences from Tektites
Lunar and Planetary Science XLVIII (2017) 2832.pdf PLIOCENE IMPACT CRATER DISCOVERED IN COLOMBIA: GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCES FROM TEKTITES. A. Ocampo1, J. Gómez2, J. A. García3, A. Lindh4, A. Scherstén4, A. Pitzsch5, L. Page4, A. Ishikawa6, 7 8 9 9 10 11 1 K. Suzuki , R. S. Hori , Margarita Buitrago and José Abel Flores , D. Barrero , V. Vajda ; NASA HQ, Science Mission Directorate, US ([email protected]), 2Colombian Geological Survey, Bogotá, Colombia; 3Universidad Libre, Sociedad astronomica ANTARES, Cali, Colombia; 4Department of Geology, Lund University, Sweden; 5MAX–lab, Lund University, Sweden/ Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin, Institute Methods and Instrumentation for Synchrotron Radia- tion Research, Berlin, Germany; 6Department of Earth Science & Astronomy, The University of Tokyo, Japan; 7IFREE/SRRP, Japan Agency for Marine–Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka, Japan; 8Department of Earth Science, Ehime University, Japan; 9Department of Geology, University of Salamanca, Spain. 10Consultant geologist, Bogotá, Colombia; 11Department of Palaeobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Sweden Introduction: The geological and paleontologi- The impact crater and the local geology: The cal record have revealed that impacts of large extra- Cali Crater is located in the Cauca Sub-Basin between terrestrial bodies may cause ecosystem devastation at a the Western and Central Colombian Cordillera, SE of global scale [1], whereas smaller impacts have more Cali, in a geologically complex and tectonically modify regional consequences depending on their size, impact area Fig 2 [5]. Using seismic data we determine the angle and composition of the target rocks [2]. Approx- outer ring of the buried Cali impact crater has major imately 200 impact structures are currently confirmed axis of 36 km and a minor axis of 26 km. -
Chicxulub and the Exploration of Large Peak- Ring Impact Craters Through Scientific Drilling
Chicxulub and the Exploration of Large Peak- Ring Impact Craters through Scientific Drilling David A. Kring, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, Texas 77058, USA; Philippe Claeys, Analytical, Environmental and Geo-Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, Brussels 1050, Belgium; Sean P.S. Gulick, Institute for Geophysics and Dept. of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78758, USA; Joanna V. Morgan and Gareth S. Collins, Dept. of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London SW7 2AZ, UK; and the IODP-ICDP Expedition 364 Science Party. ABSTRACT proving the structure had an impact origin. to assess the depth of origin of the peak- The Chicxulub crater is the only well- The buried structure was confirmed by ring rock types and determine how they preserved peak-ring crater on Earth and seismic surveys conducted in 1996 and were deformed during the crater-forming linked, famously, to the K-T or K-Pg mass 2005 to be a large ~180–200-km–diameter event. That information is needed to effec- impact crater with an intact peak ring tively test how peak-ring craters form on extinction event. For the first time, geolo- (Morgan et al., 1997; Gulick et al., 2008). planetary bodies. gists have drilled into the peak ring of that The discovery of the Chicxulub impact The expedition was also designed to crater in the International Ocean structure initially prompted two scientific measure any hydrothermal alteration in Discovery Program and International drilling campaigns. In the mid-1990s, a the peak ring and physical properties of the Continental Scientific Drilling Program series of shallow onshore wells up to 700 m rocks, such as porosity and permeability, (IODP-ICDP) Expedition 364. -
Educator's Guide
educator’s guide Table of Contents INTRODUCTION . 3 ACTIVITY FOR GRADES 3-5 Introduction for Educator . 4 Asteroids in Orbit Student Activity . 5 ACTIVITIES FOR GRADES 6-8 Introduction for Educator . 7 What Are Asteroids? Instructions for Educator . 7 Making a Splash Instructions for Educator . 7 Working Together Instructions for Educator . 8 What Are Asteroids? Student Activity . 9 Making a Splash Student Activity . 11 Working Together Student Activity . 13 ACTIVITIES FOR GRADES 9-12 Introduction for Educator . 15 Tracing the Past Instructions for Educator . 15 Defending the Future Instructions for Educator . 16 Tracing the Past Student Activity . 17 Defending the Future Student Activity . 18 EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS ALIGNMENT . 19 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . 20 2 Introduction AN EXTRAORDINARY FIELD TRIP AND LEARNING EXPERIENCE! Dear Educator, Planetary defense is a relatively new science . Only a few decades ago did we become certain Earth’s history of asteroid impacts was sure to repeat itself . Could we save our world today from a cosmic threat? You bet we can . But to tend to this problem, we must first understand it . That’s where Asteroid Hunters comes in . Asteroid Hunters will take your students on an exciting field trip across the Solar System and to the dawn of time . They’ll watch how gravity spun gas and dust into our Solar System, how rocky debris gathered into worlds, and how the planet-building leftovers became asteroids . They’ll learn that these natural wonders of deep space brought water to planets, and the building blocks of life itself . They will also see how we possess the technological know-how to keep an asteroid from hitting our planet– unlike the doomed dinosaurs of 65 million years ago . -
Geophysical Methods in Impact Crater Hunting – Case Summanen
Geophysical methods in impact crater hunting – Case Summanen L.J. Pesonen1, S. Hietala2*, J. Plado3, T. Kreitsmann3, J. Lerssi2, and J. Nenonen2 1 Solid Earth Geophysics Laboratory, Physics Department, University of Helsinki, Finland 2 Geological Survey of Finland, Kuopio, Finland 3 Department of Geology, University of Tartu, Estonia, *correspondence: [email protected] Abstract Impact cratering is a ubiquitous process in our solar system affecting all planetary surfaces throughout geologic time. On Earth, there are currently 190 confirmed impact structures, which are distributed unevenly. The Fennoscandian Shield houses 17 % of them. The large amount of impact structures makes Fennoscandia one of the most densely cratered terrains on Earth. A dozen (12) impact structures have been discovered in Finland. The latest discovery, Lake Summanen is located in Central Finland, about 9 km southeast of city Saarijärvi. An impact generated structure was first hinted by airborne geophysical mapping by the Geological Survey of Finland in the early 2000`s (Lerssi et al., 2007) that revealed a circular ~2.6 km wide striking aeroelectromagnetic resistivity anomaly. Recent studies in 2017-2018 confirmed its impact origin based on the findings of shatter cone-bearing rocks and the identification of planar deformation features in quartz. 1. INTRODUCTION Summanen impact crater (62°39’00’’N, 25°22’30’’E) is located within the Paleoproterozoic Central Finland Granite Belt and is covered with the Lake Summanen. The lake is somewhat elliptical (8 km x 9 km x 4 km) in shape, whereby the longest axis extends in NW–SE direction due to the erosional influence of the latest (Weichselian) glaciation. -
Unbroken Meteorite Rough Draft
Space Visitors in Kentucky: Meteorites and Asteroid “Ida.” Most meteorites originate from asteroids. Meteorite Impact Sites in Kentucky Meteorite from Clark County, Ky. Mercury Earth Saturn Venus Mars Neptune Jupiter William D. Ehmann Asteroid Belt with contributions by Warren H. Anderson Uranus Pluto www.uky.edu/KGS Special thanks to Collie Rulo for cover design. Earth image was compiled from satellite images from NOAA and NASA. Kentucky Geological Survey James C. Cobb, State Geologist and Director University of Kentucky, Lexington Space Visitors in Kentucky: Meteorites and Meteorite Impact Sites in Kentucky William D. Ehmann Special Publication 1 Series XII, 2000 i UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY Collie Rulo, Graphic Design Technician Charles T. Wethington Jr., President Luanne Davis, Staff Support Associate II Fitzgerald Bramwell, Vice President for Theola L. Evans, Staff Support Associate I Research and Graduate Studies William A. Briscoe III, Publication Sales Jack Supplee, Director, Administrative Supervisor Affairs, Research and Graduate Studies Roger S. Banks, Account Clerk I KENTUCKY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Energy and Minerals Section: James A. Drahovzal, Head ADVISORY BOARD Garland R. Dever Jr., Geologist V Henry M. Morgan, Chair, Utica Cortland F. Eble, Geologist V Ron D. Gilkerson, Vice Chair, Lexington Stephen F. Greb, Geologist V William W. Bowdy, Fort Thomas David A. Williams, Geologist V, Manager, Steven Cawood, Frankfort Henderson office Hugh B. Gabbard, Winchester David C. Harris, Geologist IV Kenneth Gibson, Madisonville Brandon C. Nuttall, Geologist IV Mark E. Gormley, Versailles William M. Andrews Jr., Geologist II Rosanne Kruzich, Louisville John B. Hickman, Geologist II William A. Mossbarger, Lexington Ernest E. Thacker, Geologist I Jacqueline Swigart, Louisville Anna E.