Kord Ernstson

geophysicist and geologist
Dr. rer. nat. (geophysics)
Dr. rer. nat.habil. (geology)
a professor at the University of Würzburg

Fernando Claudin

Geologist
Secondary teacher
Staff member ot the Museum of Geology in Barcelona (Spain)

Notes

Dear visitor, please note that we are currently reorganizing the www.impact-structures.com website. In doing so, we will enlarge upon the topics, configure them more clearly and add more text and images with a focus on additional images from our impact rock collection (impactite collection).

Technically we will replace the individual menus and submenus step by step, and in each case you will read here what has changed. Since the website will obtain a new design both the old and new one will coexist for a while.

Because of the in part close cross-linkage within the old version we cannot completely exclude some malfunctions in the course of the reorganization. Thank you for your cooperation!

To begin with, we call your attention to the following new items (see the menu column to the left):

Introduction

Understanding the Impact Cratering Process: A simple Approach

Impact ejecta page

Shock metamorphism page

Impact melt page

Newsflash

Carancas crater

A comprehensive article about the 2007 meteorite impact in Peru has now been published: Evidence for a meteoritic origin of the September 15, 2007, Carancas crater

by A. LE PICHON, K. ANTIER, Y. CANSI, B. HERNANDEZ, E. MINAYA, B. BURGOA, D. DROB, L. G. EVERS, and J. VAUBAILLON

Meteoritics & Planetary Science 43, Nr 11, 1797–1809 (2008)

Gilf Kebir (Egypt) structures

In 2004, an article entitled

"Discovery of the largest impact crater field on Earth in the Gilf Kebir region, Egypt" [ http://www.impactika.com/PaillouCRAS04.pdf ]

raised some sensation among impact researchers and in the media. Now, the impact origin has been approached with skepticism expressed in a recently published article:

Non-impact origin of the crater-like structures in the Gilf Kebir area (Egypt): Implications for the geology of eastern Sahara

by Letizia ORTI, Mario DI MARTINO, Marco MORELLI, Corrado CIGOLINI, Enrico PANDELI, and Alessandra BUZZIGOLI

Meteoritics & Planetary Science 43, Nr 10, 1629–1639 (2008)

2009 Meteoritical Society Meeting

72nd Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society

July 13-18, 2009, Nancy, France

Weekly Images

Azuara impact structure (Spain), Ries impact structure (Germany): impact as a geologic process

A few kilometers outside the northern ring of the Azuara impact structure near Belchite, a handful of isolated large blocks of Jurassic limestones emerge from the post-impact Upper Tertiary Ebro basin sediments. Quarrying in these blocks has enabled instructive insight into the drastic impact deformations experienced by very large rock volumes.
A	B
Image A shows part of a large quarry located at UTM coordinates 0687000, 4583000. The visible length in the image is roughly 300 m. The limestones are drastically destroyed through and through to form a more or less continuous breccia displaying grit (gries) brecciation and mortar texture (see Images B - E).	C
D	E
Comparable strong and continuous deformations (Images F, G) can be observed in a limestone quarry located in another block at UTM coordinates 0683000, 4583000. Continue...