Impact melt rocks from the Late Paleocene Hiawatha impact structure,northwest Greenland

Impact melt rocks formed during hypervelocity impact events are ideal for studying impact structures. Here, we describe impact melt rock samples collected proximal to the 31 km wide 58 Ma Hiawatha impact structure, northwest Greenland, which is completely covered by the Greenland Ice Sheet. The melt rocks contain diagnostic shock indicators (e.g., planar deformation features [PDF] in quartz and shocked zircon) and form three groups based on melt textures and chemistry: (i) hypocrystalline, (ii) glassy, and (iii) carbonate-based melt rocks. The exposed foreland directly in front of the structure consists of metasedimentary successions and igneous plutons; however, the carbonate-based impactites indicate a mixed target sequence with a significant carbonate-rich component. Well-preserved organic material in some melt rocks indicates that North Greenland at the time of impact was host to abundant organic material, likely a dense high-latitude temperate forest. Geochemical signatures of platinum-group elements in selected samples indicate an extraterrestrial component and support previous identification of a highly fractionated iron impactor in glaciofluvial sand. Our results illustrate the possibility to study impact structures hidden beneath a thick ice sheet based on transported samples and this opens a new avenue for identifying other potential impact craters in Greenland and Antarctica.     

Authentication controversies and impactite petrography of the New Quebec Crater

Abstract— A meteoritic origin was proposed for the New Quebec Crater in 1949 on the basis of an aerial photograph showing its unique circularity and raised rim amid Precambrian gneisses of the Canadian Shield. At that time, only those few craters associated with meteorites were generally accepted as of impact origin. When the earliest field expeditions failed to find meteorites or impact products, two leading meteoriticists, Frederick C. Leonard and Lincoln LaPaz, cited the “Chubb” Crater as a flagrant example for which claims of meteoritic origin were advanced without valid proof. They also listed the Lake Bosumtwi Crater in Ashanti (now Ghana) among crater-like features, clearly of non-meteoritic origin, misidentified as meteorite craters. Controversy over the origin these two craters continued for decades. In Part I of this paper, we trace the investigations that led to the current acceptance of New Quebec as an authentic impact crater. We note that, for reasons that are not entirely clear, a meteoritic origin for the New Quebec Crater achieved wider acceptance at an earlier date than for the Lake Bosumtwi Crater, where petrographic and chemical evidence is more abundant and compelling. In Part II, we describe the petrography of two impact melt samples from the New Quebec Crater and present new evidence on the degrees of shock metamorphism affecting the accessory minerals: apatite, sphene, magnetite and zircon. Zircon, in particular, shows a range from euhedral grains with no signs of alteration to those decomposed to baddeleyite plus silica.     

Breccias resembling melt bombs from the Roter Kamm Crater

Abstract Irregular, dark green to black, glassy-looking boulders are locally common in the northwest portion of the rim of the Roter Kamm impact crater in southern Namibia. Their smooth surfaces, flow-like textures, presence of folds, and their similarity to melt bombs have led to the interpretation that these are molten impact ejecta. However, the samples we have examined are all fine-grained breccias composed of angular fragments that show no evidence of melting. Meltlike surface textures of these rim breccias are largely a consequence of surface wind polishing of fine-grained rocks in a desert environment. These mono-mict breccias were produced by impact-related brecciation of Gariep sediments (carbonaceous, siliceous shales) previously modified by low-grade Damaran metamorphism. Secondary quartz within the breccias is attributed to fluid activity that postdates the impact.     

The Allochthonous Polymict Breccia Layer of the Haughton Impact Crater,Devon Island,Canada

Abstract— The central allochthonous polymict breccia of the Haughton impact structure is up to about 90 m thick and as much as 7.3 km in radial extent. It has been analyzed with respect to modal composition, grain-size characteristics, and degree of shock metamorphism for the grain-size ranges 10–～ 50, 1–10, 0.03–1, and <0.03 mm. The mineralogy of the breccia matrix is dominated by dolomite and calcite, with minor amounts of quartz, other silicate minerals, and rare melt particles. The following lithic clasts have been identified in the 1–10 mm size fraction (averages of vol.% given in parentheses): dolomitic rocks (51), limestones (29), crystalline rocks (10), sandstones and siltstones (3.7), chert (0.7), melt particles (1.9). The mineral clasts (1–0.03 mm) comprise (with decreasing frequency) dolomite, quartz, calcite, feldspar, biotite, amphibole, garnet, opaques, rounded quartz derived from sandstones and accessory minerals. Lithic and mineral clasts display various degrees of shock. Fragments of crystalline rocks are shocked in the 0–60 GPa range; whole rock melts from the crystalline basement are lacking and unshocked rocks are very rare. In contrast, shock-melted sandstones, shales, and chert were found in most samples. Large clasts of these melt rocks are highly concentrated near the center of the crater. Otherwise, no distinct change of the modal composition with radial range has been observed except that the frequency of limestone clasts increases slightly with radial range. The breccia near the center is more fine-grained than that beyond about 1 km radius and the sorting parameter increases somewhat with radial range. Except for the high concentration of shock-melted sedimentary rocks and highly shocked crystalline rocks near the center of the crater, the distribution of shock stages within the lithic clast population is quite uniform throughout the breccia formation. We conclude that the breccia constituents are derived from the lower part of the target stratigraphy (deeper than about 800 m) and that the total depth of excavation at Haughton is in the order of 2000 m. The mixing of sedimentary rocks of the Eleanor River Formation, Lower Ordovician, and Cambrian (～850 m thickness) with crystalline basement rocks is quite thorough and homogeneous throughout the breccia lens, at least for the analyzed part. This may require an air-borne mode of emplacement for the upper section of the breccia in analogy to the fall-back suevite in the Ries crater. A calculation of the excavation (Z-model) and of the shock pressure attenuation based on reasonable estimates of the energy and crater geometry of the Haughton impact confirms the observed maximum depth of excavation of about 2 km. Shock-melted crystalline basement rocks, if present at all, must be confined to the very center of the structure below the excavation cavity.     

Petrography and geochemistry of target rocks and impactites from the Ilyinets Crater,Ukraine

Abstract— The ～400 Ma old Ilyinets impact structure was formed in the Precambrian basement of the Ukrainian Shield and is now mostly covered by Quaternary sediments. Various impact breccias and melts are exposed in its southern section. The crater is a complex structure with a central uplift that is surrounded by an annular deposit of breccias and melt rocks. In the annulus, brecciated basement rocks are overlain by up to 80 m of glass-poor suevitic breccia, which is overlain (and partly intercalated) by glass-rich suevite with a thickness of up to 130 m. Impact-melt rocks occur within and on top of the suevites—in some cases in the form of devitrified bomb-shaped impact-glass fragments. We have studied the petrographic and geochemical characteristics of 31, mostly shocked, target rock samples (granites, gneisses, and one amphibolite) obtained from drill cores within the structure, and impact breccias and melt rock samples from drill cores and surface exposures. Multiple sets of planar deformation features (PDFs) are common in quartz, potassium feldspar, and plagioclase of the shocked target rocks. The breccias comprise more or less devitrified impact melt with shocked clasts. The impact-melt rocks (“bombs”) show abundant vesicles and, in some cases, glass is still present as brownish patches and schlieren. All impact breccias (including the melt rocks) are strongly altered and have significantly elevated K contents and lower Na contents than the target rocks. The alteration could have occurred in an impact-induced hydrothermal system. The bomb-shaped melt rocks have lower Mg and Ca contents than other rock types at the crater. Compared to target rocks, only minor enrichments of siderophile element contents (e.g., Ni, Co, Ir) in impact-melt rocks were found.     

Possible impact melt and debris flows at Tooting Crater, Mars

Candidate examples of impact melt flows and debris flows have been identified at Tooting crater, an extremely young (<2 Myr), 29 km diameter impact crater in Amazonis Planitia, Mars. Using HiRISE and CTX images, and stereo-derived digital elevation models derived from these images, we have studied the rim and interior wall of Tooting crater to document the morphology and topography of several flow features in order to constrain the potential flow formation mechanisms. Four flow types have been identified; including possible impact melt sheets and three types of debris flows. The flow features are all located within 2 km of the rim crest on the southern rim or lie on the southern interior wall of the crater ∼1500 m below the rim crest. Extensive structural failure has modified the northern half of the crater inner wall and we interpret this to have resulted in the destruction of any impact melt emplaced, as well as volatile-rich wall rock. The impact melt flows are fractured on the meter to decameter scale, have ridged, leveed lobes and flow fronts, and cover an area >6 km × 5 km on the southern rim. The debris flows are found on both the inner wall and rim of the crater, are ∼1-2 km in length, and vary from a few tens of meters to >300 m in width. These flows exhibit varying morphologies, from a channelized, leveed flow with arcuate ridges in the channel, to a rubbly flow with a central channel but no obvious levees. The flows indicate that water existed within the target rocks at the time of crater formation, and that both melt and fluidized sediment was generated during this event.     

Target rocks,impact glasses,and melt rocks from the Lonar impact crater,India: Petrography and geochemistry

Abstract— The Lonar crater, India, is the only well‐preserved simple crater on Earth in continental flood basalts; it is excavated in the Deccan trap basalts of Cretaceous‐Tertiary age. A representative set of target basalts, including the basalt flows excavated by the crater, and a variety of impact breccias and impact glasses, were analyzed for their major and trace element compositions. Impact glasses and breccias were found inside and outside the crater rim in a variety of morphological forms and shapes. Comparable geochemical patterns of immobile elements (e.g., REEs) for glass, melt rock and basalt indicates minimal fractionation between the target rocks and the impactites. We found only little indication of post‐impact hydrothermal alteration in terms of volatile trace element changes. No clear indication of an extraterrestrial component was found in any of our breccias and impact glasses, indicating either a low level of contamination, or a non‐chondritic or otherwise iridium‐poor impactor.     

Mineralogy and petrology of melt rocks from the Popigai impact structure,Siberia

Abstract— The late Eocene Popigai impact structure of Siberia comprises an approximately 0.5–1.5 km thick, ˜100 km diameter sequence of clast-rich and clast-poor andesitic to rhyolitic impact melt rocks and impact breccias, underlain by Archean to Proterozoic crystalline basement and Proterozoic to Phanerozoic sedimentary rocks. The fine-grained to cryptocrystalline texture of the more melt-rich rocks, despite their occurrence in bodies locally in excess of 800 m thick and 28 km long, suggests that the melt crystallized in response to (1) cooling by the clast load, and/or; (2) rapid nucleation on finely brecciated clasts, which have since been assimilated and/or; (3) crystallization enhanced by the relatively low water contents of the melts. Rapid crystallisation of the melt is indicated by the lack of zoning in minerals, the presence of glass, the lack of strain recovery features in clasts and the lack of evidence for fractionation in the major and trace elements, including the rare earth elements. Optical and analytical electron microscopy reveal that the previously reported division of the melt rocks into high- and low-temperature variants based on hand sample appearance, or glass content, is not warranted. Clasts within the melt-rich rocks exhibit a wide range of shock metamorphic features, though they are not distributed in the impact melts in a systematic manner. This indicates that the melt-rich rocks were well mixed during their formation, thus juxtaposing unshocked with shocked material. Injection of mesostasis melt into partially melted checkerboard plagioclase and orthopyroxene clasts also occurred during this mixing stage.     

A probable new Meteor Impact Crater

Kedarath Fountain-Pond, Gujarat, India is a probable new Meteor Impact Crater Fountain-Pond which is irregular, very old and eroded. In this note we report some preliminary observations about it and invite attention of international community of scientists towards its existence and studies and to establish finally whether or not, it is a Meteor Impact Crater. We have also taken some steps in this direction.     

Composition of the Crystalline Basement and Shock Metamorphism of Crystalline and Sedimentary Target Rocks at the Haughton Impact Crater,Devon Island,Canada

Abstract— About 100 cobble-sized samples collected from the surface of the central polymict breccia formation of Haughton impact crater, Canada, have been studied microscopically and chemically. Breccia clasts derived from the 1700 m deep Precambian basement consist of 13 rock types which can be grouped into sillimanite- and garnet-bearing gneiss; alkali feldspar-rich aplitic or biotite-hornblende-bearing gneiss; biotite and hornblende gneiss; apatite-rich biotite and biotite-hornblende gneiss; calcitediopside gneiss; amphibolite; tonalitic orthogneiss; and basalts. The range of chemical compositions of these rocks is wide: e.g., SiO₂ ranges from 40–85 wt.%; Al₂O₃ from 7–20 wt.%; CaO from 0.01–25 wt.%; or P₂O_s from <0.01–5 wt.%. Nearly all samples of crystalline rocks are shock metamorphosed up to about 60 GPa. Most conspicuous is the absence of whole-rock melts and the very rare occurrence of unshocked rocks. The 45 samples examined can be classified into the following shock stages: stage 0 (<5 GPa): 4.5%, stage Ia (10–20 GPa): 9.0%, stage Ib (20–35 GPa): 33%, stage II (35–45 GPa): 29%, stage III (45–55 GPa): 18%, stage III–IV (55–60 GPa): 6.5%. Among Paleozoic sedimentary rock clasts higher degrees of shock than within crystalline rocks were observed such as highly vesiculated, whole-rock melts of sandstones and shales. Within the northern and eastern sectors of the allochthonous breccia no distinct radial variation of the cobble-sized lithic clasts regarding abundance, rock type, and degree of shock was observed, with the exception that clasts of shock-melted sedimentary rocks and of highly shocked basement rocks (stage III–IV) are strongly concentrated near the center of the crater. Based on our field and laboratory investigations we conclude that vaporization and melting due to the Haughton impact affected the lower section of the sedimentary strata from about 900 to 1700 m depth (Eleanor River limestones and dolomites, Lower Ordovician and Cambrian limestones, dolomites, shales, and sandstones). The 60-GPa shock pressure isobar reached only the uppermost basement rocks so that whole rock melting of the crystalline rocks was not possible.     

Chemical compositions of impact melt breccias and target rocks from the Tenoumer impact crater,Mauritania

Abstract— The impact melt breccias from the Tenoumer crater (consisting of a fine‐grained intergrowth of plagioclase laths, pyroxene crystals, oxides, and glass) display a wide range of porosity and contain a large amount of target rock clasts. Analyses of major elements in impact melt rocks show lower contents of SiO₂, Al₂O₃, and Na₂O, and higher contents of MgO, Fe₂O₃, and CaO, than the felsic rocks (i.e., granites and gneisses) of the basement. In comparison with the bulk analyses of the impact melt, the glass is strongly enriched in Si‐Al, whereas it is depleted both in Mg and Fe; moreover, the impact melt rocks are variably enriched or depleted in some REE with respect to the felsic and mafic bedrock types. Gold is slightly enriched in the impact melt, and Co, Cr, and Ni abundances are possibly due to a contribution from mafic bedrock. Evidences of silicate‐carbonate liquid immiscibility, mainly as spherules and globules of calcite within the silicate glass, have been highlighted. HMX mixing calculation confirm that the impact melt rocks are derived from a mixing of at least six different target lithologies outcropping in the area of the crater. A large contribution is derived from granitoids (50%) and mica schist (17–19%), although amphibolites (?15%), cherty limestones (?10%), and ultrabasites (?6%) components are also present. The very low abundances of PGE in the melt rock seem to come mainly from some ultrabasic target rocks; therefore, the contamination from the meteoritic projectile appears to have been negligible.     

Impact melt dikes in the Sudbury multi-ring basin (Canada): Implications from uranium-lead geochronology on the Foy Offset Dike

Abstract To investigate the origin of Offset Dikes and their age relationships to major impact generated lithologies in the Sudbury multi-ring impact structure, such as the Main Mass of the Sudbury “Igneous” Complex, zircon and baddeleyite were dated by the U-Pb chronometer. The rocks analysed are one diorite and two quartz diorites from inside the Foy Offset, one quartz diorite from the contact zone, and two country rock samples collected at 10 and 30 m distances from the contact within the Levack Gneiss Complex. The 21 analysed zircon and baddeleyite fractions yield a crystallization age of 1852 +4/-3 (2σ) Ma for the accessory minerals in the Foy Offset Dike and an age of 2635 ± 5 Ma for the shocked Levack country rock, in which zircons show significant shock effects (multiple sets of planar fractures), in contrast to the totally unshocked zircons of the Offset Dike. Within given errors, the new age of 1852 Ma is identical to the pooled 1850 ± 1 Ma U-Pb age determined by Krogh et al. (1984) as the crystallization age of accessory phases in different lithologies of the Sudbury “Igneous” Complex, which has been interpreted to represent the coherent impact melt sheet of the Sudbury Structure. This excellent agreement of the ages substantiates that emplacement of the Offset Dikes occurred coevally with the formation of the impact melt sheet. Total absence of inherited zircons in the central part of the Foy Offset indicates melting of the precursor material at temperatures well above 1700 °C, which emphasizes the origin of the dike lithologies by impact melting.     

Tenoumer impact crater,Mauritania: Impact melt genesis from a lithologically diverse target

Impact melt rocks from the 1.9 km diameter, simple bowl‐shaped Tenoumer impact crater in Mauritania have been analyzed chemically and petrologically. They are heterogeneous and can be subdivided into three types based on melt matrix color, occurrence of lithic clast components, amount of vesiculation (melt degassing), different proportions of carbonate melt mingled into silicate melt, and bulk rock chemical composition. These heterogeneities have two main causes (1) due to the small size of the impact crater, there was probably no coherent melt pool where a homogeneous mixture of melts, derived from different target lithologies, could be created; and (2) melt rock heterogeneity occurring at the thin section scale is due to fast cooling during and after the dynamic ejection and emplacement process. The overall period of crystal growth from these diverse melts was extremely short, which provides a further indication that complete chemical equilibration of the phases could not be achieved in such short time. Melt mixing processes involved in the generation of impact melts are, thus, recorded in nonequilibrium growth features. Variable mixing processes between chemically different melt phases and the formation of hybrid melts can be observed even at millimeter scales. Due to extreme cooling rates, different mixing and mingling stages are preserved in the varied parageneses of matrix minerals and in the mineral chemistry of microlites. ⁴⁰Ar³⁹Ar step‐heating chronology on specimens from three melt rock samples yielded five concordant inverse isochron ages. The inverse isochron plots show that minute amounts of inherited ⁴⁰Ar* are present in the system. We calculated a weighted mean age of 1.57 ± 0.14 Ma for these new results. This preferred age represents a refinement from the previous range of 21 ka to 2.5 Ma ages based on K/Ar and fission track dating.     

Volcanic and structural history of the rocks exposed at Pickering Crater (Daedalia Planum, Mars)

In the western hemisphere of Mars Amazonian volcanism from Arsia Mons produced the smooth surfaces of Daedalia Planum and masks older rocks. Close to the southern termination of Daedalia Planum basement rocks are exposed in which are preserved craters that escaped or were only partially filled by this most recent volcanism. Pickering Crater is an approximately 130 km diameter crater. The youngest lavas flowed into this crater from Daedalia Planum by way of a NW rim breach, covering its western part. East of a well-defined flow front an older lava sequence with a distinctive platy surface and derived from a more proximal unestablished source to the northeast is exposed. Several units are identified within this sequence on the basis of surface texture, which is more subdued in progressively older rocks. Only local mapping of the flow front boundaries of these units is possible because of incomplete coverage by high resolution imagery. During emplacement of the older lavas a NE-SW striking en echelon graben system and parallel smaller troughs and dikes formed under inferred regional NW-SE extension. A much earlier strike-slip regime pre-dating the lavas exposed in the crater floor is postulated, based on the highly fretted nature of the rim of Pickering Crater and an elongated smaller crater to its northeast, approximately 40 km long in the NE-SW direction. The rims of these craters contrast with that of a smoother rimmed impact crater in the southeast that was excavated subsequent to strike-slip deformation but prior to the emplacement of platy surfaced lavas.     

Incipient melt formation and devitrification at the Wanapitei impact structure,Ontario, Canada

Abstract— The Wanapitei impact structure is ～8 km in diameter and lies within Wanapitei Lake, ～34 km northeast of the city of Sudbury. Rocks related to the 37 Ma impact event are found only in Pleistocene glacial deposits south of the lake. Most of the target rocks are metasedimentary rocks of the Proterozoic Huronian Supergroup. An almost completely vitrified, inclusion-bearing sample investigated here represents either an impact melt or a strongly shock metamorphosed, pebbly wacke. In the second, preferred interpretation, a number of partially melted and devitrified clasts are enclosed in an equally highly shock metamorphosed arkosic wacke matrix (i.e., the sample is a shocked pebbly wacke), which records the onset of shock melting. This interpretation is based on the glass composition, mineral relicts in the glass, relict rock textures, and the similar degree of shock metamorphism and incipient melting of all sample components. Boulder matrix and clasts are largely vitrified and preserve various degrees of fluidization, vesiculation, and devitrification. Peak shock pressure of ～50–60 GPa and stress experienced by the sample were somewhat below those required for complete melting and development of a homogeneous melt. The rapid cooling and devitrification history of the analyzed sample is comparable to that reported recently from glasses in the suevite of the Ries impact structure in Germany and may indicate that the analyzed sample experienced an annealing temperature after deposition of somewhere between 650 °C and 800 °C.     

On the Shape of an Impact Crater at High-Speed Impacts

This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the geometric parameters of craters that originated at the impact interaction of polyethylene projectiles with a massive organic-glass target. The impactor speed ranged from 2.7 to 6.28 km/s. The shapes of the resulting craters are determined. Using statistical analysis and scaling theory, we obtained the dependence of the diameter and depth of the crater on defining parameters. The critical impact energy resulting in the catastrophic breakup of the target is estimated.     

Target rocks,impact glasses,and melt rocks from the Lonar crater,India: Highly siderophile element systematics and Sr‐Nd‐Os isotopic signatures

The Lonar crater is a ~0.57‐Myr‐old impact structure located in the Deccan Traps of the Indian peninsula. It probably represents the best‐preserved impact structure hosted in continental flood basalts, providing unique opportunities to study processes of impact cratering in basaltic targets. Here we present highly siderophile element (HSE) abundances and Sr‐Nd and Os isotope data for target basalts and impactites (impact glasses and impact melt rocks) from the Lonar area. These tools may enable us to better constrain the interplay of a variety of impact‐related processes such as mixing, volatilization, and contamination. Strontium and Nd isotopic compositions of impactites confirm and extend earlier suggestions about the incorporation of ancient basement rocks in Lonar impactites. In the Re‐Os isochron plot, target basalts exhibit considerable scatter around a 65.6 Myr Re‐Os reference isochron, most likely reflecting weathering and/or magma replenishment processes. Most impactites plot at distinctly lower ¹⁸⁷Re/¹⁸⁸Os and ¹⁸⁷Os/¹⁸⁸Os ratios compared to the target rocks and exhibit up to two orders of magnitude higher abundances of Ir, Os, and Ru. Moreover, the impactites show near‐chondritic interelement ratios of HSE. We interpret our results in terms of an addition of up to 0.03% of a chondritc component to most impact glasses and impact melt rocks. The magnitude of the admixture is significantly lower than the earlier reported 12–20 wt% of extraterrestrial component for Lonar impact spherules, reflecting the typical difference in the distribution of projectile component between impact glass spherules and bulk impactites.     

Contrasting Aerodynamic Morphology and Geochemistry of Impact Spherules from Lonar Crater,India: Some Insights into Their Cooling History

The ~50 or 570 ka old Lonar crater, India, was excavated in the Deccan Trap flood basalt of Cretaceous age by the impact of a chondritic asteroid. The impact-spherules known from within the ejecta around this crater are of three types namely aerodynamically shaped sub-mm and mm size spherules, and a sub-mm sized variety of spherule, described as mantled lapilli, having a core consisting of ash-sized grains, shocked basalt and solidified melts surrounded by a rim of ash-sized materials. Although, information is now available on the bulk composition of the sub-mm sized spherules (Misra et al. in Meteorit Planet Sci 7:1001–1018, 2009), almost no idea exists on the latter two varieties. Here, we presented the microprobe data on major oxides and a few trace elements (e.g. Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn) of mm-sized impact spherules in unravelling their petrogenetic evolution. The mm-sized spherules are characterised by homogeneous glassy interior with vesicular margin in contrast to an overall smooth and glassy-texture of the sub-mm sized spherules. Undigested micro-xenocrysts of mainly plagioclase, magnetite and rare clinopyroxene of the target basalt are present only at the marginal parts of the mm-sized spherules. The minor relative enrichment of SiO₂ (~3.5 wt% in average) and absence of schlieren structure in these spherules suggest relatively high viscosity of the parent melt droplets of these spherules in comparison to their sub-mm sized counterpart. Chemically homogeneous mm-sized spherule and impact-melt bomb share similar bulk chemical and trace element compositions and show no enrichment in impactor components. The general depletion of Na₂O within all the Lonar impactites was resulted due to impact-induced volatilisation effect, and it indicates the solidification temperature of the Lonar impactites close to 1,100 °C. The systematic geochemical variation within the mm-sized spherules (Mg# ~0.38–0.43) could be attributed to various level of mixing between plagioclase-dominated impact melts and ultrafine pyroxene and/or titanomagnetite produced from the target basalt due to impact. Predominance of schlieren and impactor components (mainly Cr, Ni), and nearly absence of vesicles in the sub-mm sized spherules plausibly suggest that these quenched liquid droplets could have produced from the impactor-rich, hotter (~1,100 °C or more) central part of the plume, whereas the morpho-chemistry of the mm-sized spherules induces their formation from the relatively cool outer part of the same impact plume.