Impact thermochronology and the age of Haughton impact structure, Canada

Young, K. E.; Soest, M. C. van; Hodges, Kip; Watson, E. Bruce; Adams, B. A.; Lee, Pascal

doi:10.1002/grl.50745

Cited by 36 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…In contrast to the kipukas, the nearby central peaks of Yerkes Crater are strongly noritic, and from crater scaling relationships would have been uplifted from depths within Crisium's impact melt sheet (~6–15 km). Expected central peak shock pressures below 25 GPa (Baker et al, ; Johnson & Hörz, ), together with evidence from terrestrial crater peaks (Morgan et al, ; Young et al, , ), strongly suggest that Crisium impact melt uplifted in Yerkes' central peaks could record the age of the Crisium‐forming impact.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact Melt Facies in the Moon's Crisium Basin: Identifying, Characterizing, and Future Radiogenic Dating

et al. 2020

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Both Earth and the Moon share a common history regarding the epoch of large basin formation, though only the lunar geologic record preserves any appreciable record of this Late Heavy Bombardment. The emergence of Earth's first life is approximately contemporaneous with the Late Heavy Bombardment; understanding the latter informs the environmental conditions of the former, which are likely necessary to constrain the mechanisms of abiogenesis. While the relative formation time of most of the Moon's large basins is known, the absolute timing is not. The timing of Crisium Basin's formation is one of many important events that must be constrained and would require identifying and dating impact melt formed in the Crisium event. To inform a future lunar sample dating mission, we thus characterized possible outcrops of impact melt. We determined that several mare lava-embayed kipukas could contain impact melt, though the rim and central peaks of the partially lava-flooded Yerkes Crater likely contain the most pure and intact Crisium impact melt. It is here where future robotic and/or human missions could confidently add a key missing piece to the puzzle of the combined issues of early Earth-Moon bombardment and the emergence of life.Plain Language Summary How could life get started on Earth nearly four billion years ago if our planet was constantly being impacted by asteroids and comets? While we do not yet know, we are starting to piece together parts of the answer. Earth's largest impact basins are long gone because of our planet's active geology, life, and flowing water. But the Moon's big craters are well preserved. The formation of those large basins melted lots of rocks, which then cooled; by collecting those rocks on future missions and figuring out how old they are, we can determine the timing of when large basins formed on the Moon and, by extension, on Earth. Crisium basin is one of those large basins that we need to get the age for. Most of the rock that was melted from this impact and then cooled is buried by much younger lava flows, but we believe that some of it was brought up when the crater Yerkes formed on top of Crisium. The central mountain of Yerkes Crater is where we believe future robots and/or astronauts should go to collect once-molten rock and figure out how old it and the basin are.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact Melt Facies in the Moon's Crisium Basin: Identifying, Characterizing, and Future Radiogenic Dating

et al. 2020

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“…1). This is a well-preserved 23 km diameter (Osinski and Spray, 2005) 23 Myr old (Young et al, 2013) meteorite impact structure, which is a well-established Mars analogue terrain, and has been the focus of numerous planetary analogue studies including crater morphology and erosion, periglacial landscape evolution on Earth and Mars, and evolution of ancient lake beds, among other activities (Lee and Osinski, 2005). The location provides access to both exposed subglacial channels and river networks, allowing for systematic comparisons of their geometry and longitudinal profiles.…”

Section: Other Characteristics Referencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subglacial drainage patterns of Devon Island, Canada: detailed comparison of rivers and subglacial meltwater channels

Galofre

Jellinek

Osinski³

et al. 2018

The Cryosphere

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Abstract. Subglacial meltwater channels (N-channels) are attributed to erosion by meltwater in subglacial conduits. They exert a major control on meltwater accumulation at the base of ice sheets, serving as drainage pathways and modifying ice flow rates. The study of exposed relict subglacial channels offers a unique opportunity to characterize the geomorphologic fingerprint of subglacial erosion as well as study the structure and characteristics of ice sheet drainage systems. In this study we present detailed field and remote sensing observations of exposed subglacial meltwater channels in excellent preservation state on Devon Island (Canadian Arctic Archipelago). We characterize channel cross section, longitudinal profiles, and network morphologies and establish the spatial extent and distinctive characteristics of subglacial drainage systems. We use field-based GPS measurements of subglacial channel longitudinal profiles, along with stereo imagery-derived digital surface models (DSMs), and novel kinematic portable lidar data to establish a detailed characterization of subglacial channels in our field study area, including their distinction from rivers and other meltwater drainage systems. Subglacial channels typically cluster in groups of ∼10 channels and are oriented perpendicular to active or former ice margins. Although their overall direction generally follows topographic gradients, channels can be oblique to topographic gradients and have undulating longitudinal profiles. We also observe that the width of firstorder tributaries is 1 to 2 orders of magnitude larger than in Devon Island river systems and approximately constant. Furthermore, our findings are consistent with theoretical expectations drawn from analyses of flow driven by gradients in effective water pressure related to variations in ice thickness. Our field and remote sensing observations represent the first high-resolution study of the subglacial geomorphology of the high Arctic, and provide quantitative and qualitative descriptions of subglacial channels that revisit well-established field identification guidelines. Distinguishing subglacial channels in topographic data is critical for understanding the emergence, geometry, and extent of channelized meltwater systems and their role in ice sheet drainage. The final aim of this study is to facilitate the identification of subglacial channel networks throughout the globe by using remote sensing techniques, which will improve the detection of these systems and help to build understanding of the underlying mechanics of subglacial channelized drainage.

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“…Biswas et al, 2007), and impact structures (e.g. Young et al, 2013). Furthermore, this can be coupled with apatite 4 He/ 3 He studies to constrain continuous thermal paths between temperatures less than 50°C to above 200°C, which in some cases may discriminate surface processes driven by climate variation (e.g.…”

Section: Geologic Utilitymentioning

confidence: 99%