Geol 206 6 PDF

6/23/2020
 Large asteroid impact simulation-Discovery channel:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU1QPtOZQZU
1 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters
Meteorites and Impact Craters
 Meteorites are solid objects that fall to the surface of the Earth from the
interplanetary space of the solar system.
 The size of meteorite specimens ranges widely from particles smaller than grains
of sand to large masses measuring tens of meters or even kilometers in diameter.
 Most meteorites are composed of silicate and oxide minerals, like those that
form igneous rocks of basaltic composition on the Earth, and are therefore
classified as “stony” meteorites.
 In addition, some meteorites consist largely of metallic alloys of iron and nickel,
whereas others contain a mixture of silicate minerals in a matrix of metallic
iron.
What are meteorites?. Explain their chemical composition.
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 The fall of meteorites is accompanied by thunderous explosions of fireballs that

streak across the sky trailing dark smoke.
 Because of their unusual appearance, meteorites have been collected for
thousands of years and were considered to be messengers from the gods who
reside in the sky.
 Meteorite specimens may be extremely massive such as the Cape York iron
meteorite in Figure 1 which weighed about 200 tons before it broke into several
fragments as it passed through the atmosphere.
 Although have been used economically, the scientific importance of meteorites
arises from the fact that they are fragments of larger bodies that formed at the
same time as the planets and their satellites very early in the history of the solar
system. Accordingly, the study of meteorites has provided a wealth of
information about the origin and age of the solar system including the Earth.
What is the significance of studying meteorites?
Figure 1. A 34-ton fragment of an iron meteorite that fell on the Cape York
peninsula of Northwest Greenland thousands of years ago.
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 When a large meteorite having a diameter of 10 m or more impacts the Earth, it

excavates a crater the diameter of which is roughly ten times larger than the
diameter of the impactor.
 More than 150 such impact craters have been identified on the Earth and tens
of thousands occur on the Moon.
The terminology used to describe meteorites: Explain the terminology….?
1. Meteors are streaks of light in the sky at night caused by small grains that are
heated by friction with the atmosphere.
2. Meteoroids are solid objects in interplanetary space with diameters ranging
from a few centimeters to several meters or even tens of meters.
3. Meteorites are meteoroids that have fallen to the surface of the Earth.
A fireball over
Alaska, Sept., 2007
A great ball of fire streaked

across the Texas’ sky during
the daytime.
A glowing
meteor during
the peak of the
2009 Leonid
Meteor
Shower.
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1. Classification and Mineralogy of Meteorites

 Meteorites are subdivided on the basis of their composition into:
1. Stony meteorites 2. Stony – irons, 3. Iron meteorites
 Most stony meteorites contain small spherical pellets called chondrules.
Therefore, stony meteorites are further classified into chondrites (containing
chondrules; includes: ordinary and carbonaceous) and achondrites (lacking
chondrules). Both types of stony meteorites are subdivided into different classes
based primarily on their chemical compositions, mineralogy, and textures.
 Many chondrites as well as achondrites are breccias that formed by crushing
during collisions in the asteroidal belt.
 The stony irons and irons also encompass several different classes defined on
the basis of chemical, mineralogical, and textural criteria.
What are the different types of meteorites?

 The classification of meteorites reveals several interesting facts:

1. Ordinary chondrites and achondrites contain minerals that form only at high temperatures and
that do not contain hydroxyl ions (OH−) or water molecules in their crystal structure.
2. Carbonaceous chondrites contain minerals that form at comparatively low temperature (e.g.,
serpentine, sulfates) and they also contain water molecules and solid hydrocarbon compounds.
3. Iron meteorites (Fig. 2) contain minerals composed of metallic iron and nickel.
4. Some stony meteorites are known to have originated from the Moon and from Mars (Fig. 3).
5. A few rare minerals in meteorites do not occur naturally on the Earth.
 About 80 minerals that occur in stony meteorites, also occur in terrestrial rocks.
Meteorites contain the same chemical elements as terrestrial rocks and they are
also composed mainly of the same minerals as terrestrial rocks.
 The densities of stony meteorites (except carbonaceous chondrites) are

higher than those of olivine 3.32 g/cm3 and pyroxene 3.3 g/cm3 because they
contain small grains of metallic iron-nickel alloys. Ordinary chondrites, for
example, have densities between 3.3 and 3.8 g/cm3.
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Their average bulk density?

 The densities of most carbonaceous chondrites range from about 2.2 to 3.5
g/cm3 depending on their chemical composition.
 The densities of iron meteorites are high and depend on the concentrations of
metallic iron and nickel whose densities in pure form are: iron Fe = 7.86 g/cm3,
nickel Ni = 8.90 g/cm3. Therefore, the density (d) of the metal phase of an iron
meteorite containing 8.0 % Ni and 92 % Fe is:
d = 0.08×8.90 + 0.92×7.86 = 7.94 g/cm3
 A spherical specimen of an iron meteorite with a diameter of 30.48 cm has a

mass (m) of 117,664 g and, therefore, is about three times heavier than a
granite boulder of the same volume.
Common Examples?
Figure 2. The Sikhote-Alin iron meteorite fell in 1947 in the

mountains north of Vladivostok, Russia. The original meteoroid
weighed between 70 and 100 tons before it exploded about 5.8 km
above the surface of the Earth.
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Common Examples?
Figure 3. The stony meteorite Nakhla fell on June 28 of 1911 in Abu Hommos near
Alexandria, Egypt. More than 40 specimens of Nakhla (total 40 kg) were recovered, most
of which are still held by the Museum of Cairo. Nakhla is known to be a specimen of basalt
that was ejected from the surface of Mars by the impact of a meteorite from the asteroidal
belt.
A stony-Iron meteorite
A stony-iron meteorite
embedded with beautiful
gem-quality olivine crystals.
This is a slice of the
meteorite which was found
in Argentina in 1951. The
olive-green crystals are a
form of magnesium-iron
silicate.
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2. Carbonaceous Chondrites
 They represent nearly 5% of the observed falls of meteorites and are

characterized by the presence of organic compounds composed of carbon,
hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur.
 These compounds were formed by chemical reactions in the solar nebula and
are not of biogenic origin.
 The organic compounds in carbonaceous chondrites are heat-sensitive and

have survived only where the ambient temperature did not exceed 125º C in the
surface layers of the meteorite parent bodies. In addition, the primordial organic
compounds have survived in the ice-rich bodies of the solar system, such as the
satellites of the gaseous planets.
Figure 4. A. Allende is a carbonaceous meteorite that fell on February 8, 1969, in Mexico. The meteorite
broke up into a large number of small pieces whose total mass was about two tons.
B. The sawed interior surface of Allende reveals the presence of numerous mineral inclusions in a fine-
grained, dark grey matrix. Allende also contains a variety of carbon compounds such as polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons, etc.
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3. Tektites What are tektites? How do they form?

 Tektites are small objects composed of black to greenish glass that occur in
strewn fields in certain regions of the Earth, including: Australia, Malaysia,
Indonesia, Indochina, southern China, Philippines, Africa (Ivory Coast),
Czechoslovakia, and North America (Texas and Georgia).
 The names of tektites are derived from the region in which they were collected
(e.g., australites, indochinites, and philippinites).
 The diameters of tektites range from a few millimeters (microtektites) up to 20

cm although most are less than 5 cm across.
 Most tektites appear to have been shaped by aerodynamic processes with

concurrent melting and ablation during their passage through the atmosphere.
 Their shapes resemble spheres, teardrops,

buttons, etc. This australite tektite is a
flanged button.
Figure 5. This tektite has a diameter of 20 mm
and weighs 3.5 g. Tektites form as a 2 cm
consequence of meteorite impacts into silica-
rich soil and rocks on the surface of the
Earth. The resulting blobs of molten silicate
are thrown high into the atmosphere where
they are shaped by aerodynamic forces as
they solidify into silica-rich glass.
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Different forms of tektites.
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4. Meteorite Parent Bodies What is the origin of meteorites?

 Most meteorites are fragments of asteroids that occur in large numbers in the
space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
 Most of the asteroids are themselves fragments of still larger bodies that
apparently formed by accretion of planetesimals at the time the solar system
formed within the protoplanetary disk.
 Most of these planetary bodies were subsequently broken up by the gravitational
forces of Mars and Jupiter.
 Therefore, meteoroids in space are fragments of their parent bodies that
resembled the Earth and the other terrestrial planets of the solar system.
 For these reasons, the study of meteorites provides information about the way the
planets formed and differentiated into a metallic core, a silicate mantle, and a thin crust.
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5. Celestial Mechanics
 Meteorites originate from the main asteroidal belt between the orbits of Mars
and Jupiter and their orbits were perturbed by collisions among the large
fragments of their former parent bodies which presently populate this region of
space in the solar system.
 This fact is also supported by the observed orbits of several stony meteorites,
where they are highly eccentric and extended from the asteroidal belt at
aphelion to the vicinity of the Sun at perihelion.
 Their orbits are closely aligned with the plane of the ecliptic as are the orbits
of the asteroids. Consequently, these meteoroids crossed the orbits of Mars,
Earth, and Venus and could have impacted on any one of these planets or their
satellites (e.g., the Moon).
 The orbit of Pribram was one of the first to be established from photographs of
its fall in Czechoslovakia during the night of April 7, 1959.
 Figure 6 demonstrates that its orbit was eccentric with an aphelion within the
asteroidal belt at about 3.9 AU from the Sun and its perihelion was at a distance
of about 0.75 AU slightly outside the orbit of Venus.
 Therefore, the orbit of Pribram crossed the orbits of Mars and the Earth-Moon
system but not the orbit of Venus.
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 Figure 6. The orbit of the Pribram

meteorite which fell in
Czechoslovakia, 1959.
 Pribram appears to have
originated within the asteroidal
belt and was perturbed into an
Earth-crossing orbit.
 During every revolution in its
orbit, Pribram had four chances
to collide with the Earth and
Mars.
 Most meteoroids revolve
around the Sun in the prograde
direction as suggested also by Pribram was approaching the perihelion of its orbit
the fall of Pribram. when it caught up to the Earth.
 The time of fall of meteoroids is influenced by celestial mechanics and

therefore is not a random event.
 Figure 7 demonstrates that the frequency of meteorite falls between the years
1790 and 1940 AD reached a peak at 3:00 PM and then declined to a minimum
at 3:00 AM of the next day.
 The low frequency of falls at 3:00 AM is presumably due to the fact that most
people are asleep at this time.
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Figure 7. The number of observed meteorite falls between 1790 and 1940
AD at different times of day is not constant but rises in the morning to a
peak at 3:00 PM and then declines in the late afternoon and evening.
6. Falls and Finds
 Solid objects that pass through the atmosphere at high velocities (10 to 70 km/s)
are heated by friction and are acted upon by mechanical forces that may cause
them to break up.
 Small bodies ranging in diameter from less than 1.0 mm to a few centimeters
may be destroyed by the frictional heating and burn up as meteors (shooting
stars) in the atmosphere. The same process causes the surface of larger bodies to
melt.
 The silicate and metallic iron liquids that are stripped from the surface of an
incoming meteoroid coalesce into small glass or metallic spherules that form the
“smoke” that trails behind the fire ball.
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 When a meteoroid breaks up in the atmosphere, its fall is accompanied

by loud thunder and the fragments are scattered in an oval-shaped area
called a “strewn field”. Consequently, the original meteoroid in space is
represented by several smaller meteorite specimens in the strewn field.
 The fall of such meteorite specimens has only rarely caused significant
damage to buildings or injured humans and domestic animals.
 Freshly-fallen meteorite specimens are not hot in most cases because

only their outer surface melts while their interiors remain cold.
What is the difference between Falls and Finds?

 Meteoroids in orbit around the Sun absorb solar radiation depending on the
radius and eccentricity of their orbits and on their albedo. Consequently, the
temperature of meteoroids in interplanetary space is well above “absolute zero”.
 Meteorite specimens that were collected at the time of their fall are especially
valuable for research purposes and are designated as “Falls”, whereas meteorite
specimens that were found accidentally long after their fall are called “Finds”.
 Investigation of falls demonstrate that ordinary chondrites are most abundant

and constitute 80.6% of all “falls.” Carbonaceous chondrites (4.7%) and
achondrite (8.9%) are comparatively rare as are the stony irons (1.2%) and the
irons (4.5%).
Their abundance?
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 Meteorites whose fall was not observed and which were later recovered
accidentally are rapidly altered by exposure to liquid water and to molecular
oxygen (O2) of the terrestrial atmosphere.
 As a result, the minerals of meteorites react to form weathering products that are
stable in the terrestrial environment.
 Most of the meteorites (about 70%) that land on the Earth fall into the ocean
and are rarely recovered. The remaining 30% are uniformly distributed over the
surfaces of the continents without a detectable bias for the polar regions.
 Nevertheless, more than 10,000 meteorite specimens have been collected on the
ice of the East Antarctic ice sheet.
Large meteorites hit the Earth, creating impact structures in

several localities of the world such as Manicouagan impact
structure in Quebec, Canada and Barringer Crater, north
Arizona, USA.
Distribution map of the 182 confirmed meteorite

impact structures on Earth.
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What is radioactivity? How can it be

used to determine the age of meteorites?
7. Age Determinations
 All stony meteorites contain uranium (U) and thorium (Th) whose atoms can
decompose spontaneously by emitting subatomic particles from their nuclei.
 Thus, an atom of U is transformed into the atom of a different element. The
resulting daughter atom may also be unstable and transforms itself into the
atom of still another element.
 This process is known as radioactivity which manifests itself by the emission of
subatomic particles and of penetrating electromagnetic radiation known as
gamma rays.
 The decay of U atoms continues sequentially until at last a stable atom is
formed. In the case of the decay of U and Th atoms, the end products are stable
atoms of lead (Pb). Therefore, the unstable atoms of U and Th are slowly
converted to stable atoms of Pb.
 The unstable atoms of U and Th are the radioactive parents and the stable atoms
of Pb produced by the decay of U and Th are their radiogenic daughters. The
rate of decay is governed by the halflife of the parent. Its definition?
 The decay of radioactive parent atoms and the accumulation of stable daughter
atoms in the meteorite with time is shown in Figure 8A.
 As the number of parent atoms decreases, the number of radiogenic daughter

atoms increases until in the end all of the parent atoms decay to daughter atoms.
 Therefore, the number of daughter atoms that have accumulated divided by the
number of remaining parent atoms in Figure 8B increases from zero (no
daughter present) at the beginning to 1.0 after one halflife, 3.0 after two
halflives, and so on to 63 after six halflives, etc.
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Figure 8. A. The
radioactive parent
atoms decay to stable
daughters in
accordance with
their halflives such
that after each
halflife only half of
the parent atoms
remain.
B. The decay of radioactive parent atoms and the

consequent accumulation of stable daughters
causes the D/P ratio to increase with time.
 If D/P = 15.0, the graph in Figure 8B indicates that 4.0 halflives of the parent
have elapsed. If the halflife is 1.15×109 years, then the age (t) of the meteorite is:
t = 4.0×1.15×109 = 4.60×109 y
 Dates in the past are expressed in terms of mega anna (Ma) or giga anna (Ga)
where Ma = 106 years ago and Ga = 109 years ago, and the word “anna” is the
plural form of “annum” which is the Latin word for “year”.
 There are other elements that also have radioactive atoms (Table 1). Nine
different parent–daughter pairs exist each of which has been used to date
meteorites.
 When several of these methods are used to date the same meteorite, the
resulting dates are not necessarily identical because each parent–daughter pair
responds differently to the events that have affected meteorites during their long
histories.
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Table 1. Elements that have radioactive atoms,

their halflives, and the elements of their stable
radiogenic daughters.
 Most stony meteorites that have been dated crystallized within about 100
million years of each other between 4.65 and 4.55 Ga.
 This result means that the parent bodies of meteorites formed in this
interval of time, became hot enough to melt, differentiated by segregation of
immiscible liquids, and then cooled and crystallized.
 According to the theory of the origin of the solar system, the Earth and the
other planets of the solar system also formed at this time by the same
process as the parent bodies of the meteorites.
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8. Meteorite Impacts
 Large meteorites measuring several hundred meters in diameter contain a very
large amount of kinetic energy expressed conventionally in terms of the energy
released by the explosion of millions of metric tons of TNT (dynamite).
 As a result, such large meteorites can pass through the atmosphere unscathed
and explode on impact with the Earth, thereby forming craters whose diameters
are more than ten times larger than the diameters of the impactors.
 The release of the vast amount of energy and the injection of dust and smoke
into the atmosphere cause environmental damage and sudden climate change
on a global scale.
 Therefore, the impacts of large meteorites in the geologic past have caused
global extinction events affecting both animals and plants on the continents and
in the oceans.
8.1. Formation of Craters

 The physical process by means of which impact craters form has been
investigated by the study of:
1. Known impact craters such as Meteor Crater, Arizona.
2. Nuclear and chemical explosion craters.
3. Craters formed by hypervelocity projectiles in the laboratory.
 The results of these studies indicate that meteorite impact-craters form in three
stages; How do impact craters form?
1. Compression stage.
2. Excavation stage.
3. Post-formation modification stage
 The compression stage occurs when the kinetic energy of the meteorite is
transferred into the target rocks by means of two compressional waves. One of
these travels through the meteorite from the front to the back, whereas the
second wave moves downward through the target rocks.
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 If the incoming meteorite had a velocity of 10 km/s, the pressure generated in

the target rocks by the compressional wave is of the order of several million
bars (1 bar = 0.987 atmospheres). These high pressures not only crush rocks to
a powder but they also cause them to melt and even to vaporize.
 The shockwave that passes through the target rocks also causes textural changes
in the rocks and crystallographic alteration of minerals.
 The excavation of the impact crater takes place when a relaxation wave is
generated by the decompression of the rocks after the compression wave has
passed.
 At this stage, the fragments of crushed rocks are thrown out of the impact site at
comparatively low velocity and form the ejecta blanket that surrounds the
crater.
What are the factors affecting the

crater size?
 The size of the crater that is
produced depends on the mass and
velocity of the meteorite and on the
mechanical properties of the target
rocks.
 This figure displays the relationship
between the diameter of the crater (in
km) and the kinetic energy (in ergs)
of the impactor.
Figure 9. The diameters of impact craters increase exponentially with increasing kinetic
energy of the impacting meteoroid. A crater having a diameter of about 30 km can be formed
by a meteoroid whose kinetic energy is close to 1×1028 ergs.
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8.2. Classification of Craters

 The impact craters are classified on the basis of their increasing diameters into:
1. Bowl-shaped craters
2. Central-uplift craters
3. Peak-ring basins List the different types of impact craters!
4. Multi-ring basins
 The bowl-shaped craters (Fig. 10A) have diameters less than about 5 km.
Consequently, they are formed by comparatively small impactors. Larger craters
(e.g., 10 km) have a central uplift (Fig. 10B).
 Peak-ring basins and even multi-ring basins were probably formed on the
Earth during the period of intense bombardment of all terrestrial planets from
4.5 and 3.8 billion years ago. The remnants of such impact basins have been
recognized on the Earth, but much of their original structure has been removed
by erosion.
Figure 10. The structure of meteorite impact craters depends on the kinetic energy of the
impactor. Bowl-shaped craters (A) form by the release of less than 1×1024 ergs, whereas
central-uplift craters (B) result from the explosive release of more than 1×1025 ergs.
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8.3. Modification of Craters
 After impact craters have formed, their shapes are modified by geological
processes. These processes cause the formation of terraces by sliding of rock
masses and the accumulation of talus cones and aprons along the crater walls.
 Impact craters on the Earth may fill with water which deposits clastic sediments
composed of wind-blown dust and locally-derived weathering products.
 If the water evaporates as a result of progressive desertification of the climate,

lacustrine evaporite minerals may also be deposited, including calcite (CaCO3),
gypsum [CaSO4·2H2O], halite (NaCl), and hematite (Fe2O3).
 The ultimate fate of impact craters on the continents of the Earth is either to be
filled up and buried by sedimentary cover rocks or to be eroded until only the
circular outline of the crushed and brecciated rocks that underlie the former
craters remains.
8.4. Frequency of Impacts

 Powerful impacts occurred much more
frequently during the early history of the Earth
when the solar system still contained a large
number of solid bodies of various sizes.
 This figure illustrates the fact that about 4.6

billion years ago, the Earth and Moon were hit
Figure 11
by meteorites about one million times more
often than they are hit at the present time.
 The resulting devastation of the terrestrial

surface may have retarded the development of
life on the Earth. Therefore, the time between
4.6 and 3.8 billion years ago is called the
Hadean Eon after “hades” the underworld (hell)
of Greek mythology.
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Explain the frequency of meteorite impacts.
 By the time the initial period of intense bombardment ended at about 3.8 Ga, the
rate had declined to only about 30 times the present rate. Nevertheless, even at
the present time the Meteorite Flux to the Earth is between 107 and 109 kg/y.
 The impact craters, that formed during this time on all planets and their
satellites, have been obliterated on the Earth by geological processes, but they
have been preserved on the Moon. Why?
 More than 150 meteorite impact craters of Precambrian and Phanerozoic ages
have been identified on the Earth and tens of thousands of craters still exist on
the Moon.
 The Earth and Moon continue to be bombarded by meteorites on a daily basis

although most of the particles are small and are therefore classified as
micrometeorites.
 The Earth receives between 107 and 109 kg of meteoritic material each year. If
the annual amount is taken to be 108 kg, the daily meteorite flux (MF)
over the whole Earth is:
MF = (1×108)/(103×365.256) = 274 tons/day
 The daily deposition of hundreds of tons of meteoritic dust over the entire
surface of the Earth goes virtually unnoticed primarily because of the small
grain size of this material.
 Larger meteoroids with diameters of 10 m or less impact at hourly intervals, but
their fall is observed only when it occurs over densely populated areas.
 Fortunately, meteoroids having diameters of 100 m to 10 km impact on the
Earth only very rarely under present circumstances. For example, Figure 12
indicates that impacts of meteoroids with diameters of about 100 m occur only
about once in 1000 years.
What is the Meteorite Flux (MF)? How much is it?
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The size of the impactors, the resulting craters and frequency of impacts?
Figure 12. The frequency of impacts decreases with increasing diameter. Large
meteoroids (10 km diameter) impact only once in 100 million (108) years, but produce
an impact basin with a diameter of more than 100 km. The graph can also be used to
estimate the size of the impactor based on the diameter of the crater. For example, a
10 km-crater requires a meteoroid with a diameter of about 1.0 km.
[Reading: slides 46-55]
8.5. Environmental Consequences: Tunguska, 1908

 The kinetic energy (KE) of a meteorite approaching the Earth, in ergs, depends
on its mass (m) and its velocity (v) :
KE = (½) m . v2
where m = mass of the object in grams, v = velocity in cm/s.
 The kinetic energy of a meteoroid having a diameter of 100 m, a density of
3.5 g/cm3, and a velocity of 15 km/s is equal to 2.06×1024 ergs, which is
equivalent to the energy released by the explosion of 49 million tons of TNT.
 The amount of energy released by the impact of stony meteoroids with diameters
between 10 m and 10 km in Figure 13 ranges from less than 104 tons of TNT (10
m) to more than 1012 tons of TNT (10 km). The latter exceeds the energy of the
most powerful hydrogen fusion bombs by a factor of about one thousand.
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 Figure 13. Amount of energy released by

the impact of meteoroids traveling at 15
km/s. The energy is expressed in terms of
the equivalent amount of energy released
by the explosion of a certain weight of
TNT.
 Accordingly, the impact of a meteoroid
having a diameter of 100 m releases an
amount of energy equivalent to about 5
million metric tons of TNT or to the
explosion of a large nuclear fission bomb.
 The instantaneous release of this amount of energy could devastate the surface of a
larger continent and exterminate most animals and plants in the affected area.
 Meteoroids of larger diameter release proportionately more energy and cause damage
on a global scale.
 The impact and explosion of large meteoroids in the geologic history of the
Earth is recorded by craters some of which have diameters in excess of 100 km
(e.g., Vredefort, South Africa, 300 km, 2.02 Ga; Sudbury, Ontario, 250 km,
1.85 Ga; and Chicxulub, Mexico, 180 km, 65.0 Ma).
 The sudden extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period was
caused by the impact of a large meteoroid that excavated the crater at Chicxulub
in Mexico.
 In addition, the environmental consequences of the impact on the Earth of a
large meteoroid resemble the aftermath of the explosion of nuclear weapons in
the atmosphere.
 A meteoroid with a diameter of 30 to 60 m actually did explode in the
atmosphere about 6 km above the Tunguska River, Siberia, in the morning of
June 30, 1908 and released energy equivalent to 10 to 15 million tons of TNT.
 Observers in the area reported seeing a ball of fire crossing the sky followed by
very loud thunderous noises.
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 A man who lived 60 km from the explosion site reported that part of the sky was
suddenly on fire and that he felt a blast of heat as though his shirt was burning.
 The heat pulse was followed by a very loud crashing sound and a blast of hot air
that threw him off his porch and blew out glass windows in his house.
 In the area directly beneath the blast point the trees were stripped of their
branches but were left standing.
 Farther away, about 5 to 15 km from the center, the trees were blown down in a
radial pattern pointing away from the blast site.
 Reindeer herders camping about 30 km away reported that the forest started to
burn and that many reindeer were killed.
 This spectacular event in a remote and sparsely populated region of the Earth
caused little damage to the local communities.
 Impacts of large meteoroids (about 50±20m in diameter) occur approximately
once in 100 years. The consequences of such an impact would be catastrophic
if it occurred in a more populous region than Siberia.
 The Tunguska Event: Huge Asteroid Impact:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNJ8G8c3GRY
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 This spectacular bowl-shaped crater in northern Arizona was originally

identified by some geologists as a volcanic crater.
Meteor Crater is 1.1 km wide and 200 m deep. It formed about 50,000 years ago by the explosive impact
of an iron meteorite that had a diameter of 30 m, weighed about 100,000 tons, and was traveling at
about 20 km/s. The resulting crater was excavated in ~10 seconds. Meteor Crater was excavated in flat-
lying sedimentary rocks of Paleozoic age.
 However, a mining engineer considered it to be a meteorite impact-crater

because of the fragments of metallic iron-nickel alloy that had been found in
the surrounding area.
 Because the iron meteorite below the floor of Meteor Crater was not found,
doubts about its origin were raised. Therefore, during the first 50 years of the
20th century most geologists did not accept the idea that meteoroid impacts
constitute an important geological process.
 The controversy concerning the origin of Meteor Crater was settled in the late
1950s when Eugene M. Shoemaker studied it in detail . His results left no room
for doubt that Meteor Crater had in fact been formed by the explosive impact of
an iron meteorite whose diameter was about 30 m traveling at 20 km/s.
26
6/23/2020
Meteor Crater in northern Arizona.
Major Craters on Earth
27
6/23/2020
Meteor Shower Lights Up

the Sky
Meteor Shower
Lights Up the Sky,
Jordon.
28

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6/23/2020

 Large asteroid impact simulation-Discovery channel:

1 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

Meteorites and Impact Craters

2 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

 The fall of meteorites is accompanied by thunderous explosions of fireballs that

4 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

 When a large meteorite having a diameter of 10 m or more impacts the Earth, it

The terminology used to describe meteorites: Explain the terminology….?

5 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

A great ball of fire streaked

1. Classification and Mineralogy of Meteorites

What are the different types of meteorites?

 The classification of meteorites reveals several interesting facts:

 The densities of stony meteorites (except carbonaceous chondrites) are

Their average bulk density?

d = 0.08×8.90 + 0.92×7.86 = 7.94 g/cm3

 A spherical specimen of an iron meteorite with a diameter of 30.48 cm has a

9 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

Figure 2. The Sikhote-Alin iron meteorite fell in 1947 in the

 They represent nearly 5% of the observed falls of meteorites and are

 The organic compounds in carbonaceous chondrites are heat-sensitive and

13 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

14 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

3. Tektites What are tektites? How do they form?

 The diameters of tektites range from a few millimeters (microtektites) up to 20

 Most tektites appear to have been shaped by aerodynamic processes with

 Their shapes resemble spheres, teardrops,

16 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

Different forms of tektites.

4. Meteorite Parent Bodies What is the origin of meteorites?

18 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

20 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

 Figure 6. The orbit of the Pribram

21 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

 The time of fall of meteoroids is influenced by celestial mechanics and

22 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

23 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

6. Falls and Finds

24 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

 When a meteoroid breaks up in the atmosphere, its fall is accompanied

 Freshly-fallen meteorite specimens are not hot in most cases because

25 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

What is the difference between Falls and Finds?

 Investigation of falls demonstrate that ordinary chondrites are most abundant

27 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

Large meteorites hit the Earth, creating impact structures in

Distribution map of the 182 confirmed meteorite

What is radioactivity? How can it be

 As the number of parent atoms decreases, the number of radiogenic daughter

30 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

B. The decay of radioactive parent atoms and the

Table 1. Elements that have radioactive atoms,

33 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

34 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

35 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

8.1. Formation of Craters

 If the incoming meteorite had a velocity of 10 km/s, the pressure generated in

37 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

What are the factors affecting the

38 Geol-206: Planetary Geology - Meteorites and Impact Craters

8.2. Classification of Craters

8.3. Modification of Craters