The Economic Potential of Terrestrial Impact Craters

Grieve, R. A. F.; Масайтис, В. Л.

doi:10.1080/00206819409465452

Cited by 112 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…Based on concentric structural features reported by McCarthy et al (1990), Grieve and Masaitis (1994) estimated the original size of the impact structure to about 300 km which is close to what Henkel and Reimold (1998) estimated based on geophysical modeling (Figure 5.1). Grieve and Therriault (2000) suggested that the diameter of the Vredefort impact structure can be 250-300 km.…”

Section: The Impact Structure Within the Witwatersrand Basinsupporting

confidence: 77%

New techniques for estimation of source parameters: Applications to airborne gravity and pseudo-gravity gradient tensors

Beiki

2011

GEOPHYSICS

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Section: The Impact Structure Within the Witwatersrand Basinsupporting

confidence: 77%

New techniques for estimation of source parameters: Applications to airborne gravity and pseudo-gravity gradient tensors

Beiki

2011

GEOPHYSICS

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“…Hydrothermal systems are known to precipitate metal sulphides; these minerals have been found in over 25 impact craters (Naumov 2005). The hydrothermal deposition of vast quantities of economically important metal-rich minerals in large impact structures such as Sudbury crater, Canada (iron-nickel ore; Ames et al 1998) and Vredefort crater, South Africa (gold ore; Grieve & Masaitis 1994; table 1) attests to the role of impacts in the generation of minerals with significance for prebiotic reactions, and the correlation between crater size and quantity of minerals deposited. Large impacts on early Earth would have favoured mobilization of metal sulphides.…”

Section: Craters and The Origin Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

The origin and emergence of life under impact bombardment

Cockell

2006

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

101

104

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Craters formed by asteroids and comets offer a number of possibilities as sites for prebiotic chemistry, and they invite a literal application of Darwin's 'warm little pond'. Some of these attributes, such as prolonged circulation of heated water, are found in deep-ocean hydrothermal vent systems, previously proposed as sites for prebiotic chemistry. However, impact craters host important characteristics in a single location, which include the formation of diverse metal sulphides, clays and zeolites as secondary hydrothermal minerals (which can act as templates or catalysts for prebiotic syntheses), fracturing of rock during impact (creating a large surface area for reactions), the delivery of iron in the case of the impact of iron-containing meteorites (which might itself act as a substrate for prebiotic reactions), diverse impact energies resulting in different rates of hydrothermal cooling and thus organic syntheses, and the indiscriminate nature of impacts into every available lithologygenerating large numbers of 'experiments' in the origin of life. Following the evolution of life, craters provide cryptoendolithic and chasmoendolithic habitats, particularly in non-sedimentary lithologies, where limited pore space would otherwise restrict colonization. In impact melt sheets, shattered, mixed rocks ultimately provided diverse geochemical gradients, which in present-day craters support the growth of microbial communities.

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“…While the elemental wealth already existed in the target region prior to the impact, it was only the impact catastrophe that facilitated formation of sufficient melt, from which the enrichment of the resource could progress. Impact-derived diamond and lonsdaleite occur in abundance in the Popigai structure in northern Siberia (Masaitis 1998;Grieve and Masaitis 1994), but also have been described in small amounts from other impact structures. It has even been mooted that the carbonado riches of Central Africa and those parts of South America that were part of this region prior to the break-up of Gondwana could have been formed in a catastrophic impact event in the Ubangui basin of the northern Congo and the Central African Republic.…”

Section: Impact Cratering -An Integrated Disciplinementioning

confidence: 99%