岫岩陨石撞击坑结构高精度地震探测研究

我国的岫岩陨石撞击坑位于辽东半岛北部低山丘陵地区,直径1.8 km,保存完好,已被多方面的证据证实为陨石撞击坑.陨石的撞击和此后的沉积作用在坑内形成了特殊的地球物理场,使坑内与坑外的介质在速度、密度等方面存在差异.本次通过采用反射和折射地震相结合的探测方法,利用陨石撞击所形成的岩石的地震波速度和波阻抗差异,获得了陨石坑...     

岫岩陨石坑三维Q值层析成像

到2009年为止,世界上已发现176个陨石撞击坑.从20世纪80年代起,中国学者从地质、地球化学和地质钻探角度推断并证实辽宁省岫岩县的一个环形构造为陨石撞击而成,但该坑的深部构造及整体特征仍有待地球物理方法来确认.本文从地震勘探角度利用三维Q值层析成像方法首次对岫岩坑的地震波衰减结构进行了研究,以便对该撞击构造有个整体认识.Q值结构对了解地壳的非弹性性质、地壳介质非均匀性有着重要意义.利用基于吸收特征时间t^*的三维Q值层析成像方法,计算了岫岩坑地震折射方阵的观测数据的振幅谱,并通过拟合振幅谱得到了反映地震波衰减的t^*.利用t^*通过三维Q值层析成像方法获得了该坑的三维Q值结构.结果表明:该陨石坑内从地表到深度100 m的Q值层对应坑内上部107 m厚的湖泊相沉积物,深度100~300 m的Q值层对应坑内下部厚度为188 m的角砾岩堆积透镜体.深度300~700 m的Q值层对应角砾岩堆积透镜体下面的下元古界变质岩系程度较低的撞击破碎层.大约250 m深处的波阻抗界面与地质钻孔的260 m深处的陨石冲击分界面相对应.     

地震走时层析成像方法及在陨石坑探测中的应用

地震走时层析成像是地球物理反演中成熟的方法之一,已在许多领域得到广泛应用,并取得了良好的效果。本文介绍的地震层析成像方法包括模型参数化、射线追踪和理论走时计算、非线性方程组的线性化、线性化方程组的求解以及解的评价。观测数据使用了中国地震局地球物理勘探中心在岫岩陨石坑取得的浅层地震折射资料,反演得到两条近垂直交叉剖面的P波速度结构。结果表明,该坑为一简单坑,直接撞击形成的区域为直径约1．8km、深度约700m的坑体;坑中心深度约700m周围以及向下出现的7．0km／s以上的高波速可能是陨石撞击时所产生的高温高压使表层岩石达到熔融状态,改变了围岩的性质,致使围岩速度升高。     

The influence of local topography for wind direction on Mars: two examples of dune fields in crater basins

In this work, we perform an analysis of large dark dunes within Moreux Crater and Herschel Crater on Mars using High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) and Context Camera (CTX) data sets. These data allow us to conduct a detailed analysis of dune morphology and slip faces, concluding that the studied dune fields are influenced by topographically‐controlled complex wind directions. Our morphological analysis reveals that inside Moreux Crater in particular, the topographic setting dominates the wind flow direction, leading to the development of a sand transport pathway encircling the central peak of the crater. The dune fields in Herschel Crater are also affected by winds controlled by variable topography as suggested by the presence of complex dunes and dune fields. Our analysis indicate that the studied dune systems is not the result of paleo‐wind regimes. Furthermore, we perform thermal inertia measurements using thermal emission spectrometer (TES) data, which indicate that the studied dune fields consist of medium sand 250–500 µm in diameter. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Density and composition of interplanetary dust particles

Residual meteoritic material has been detected on the surface of crater interiors on lunar samples 60315,29 and 65315,68. Iron-nickel micrometeoroid residues are present in the form of mettallic spherules embedded in or attached to the crater glass-linings; stony-iron meteorite residual material is homogeneously mixed with the glass-linings.Crater simulation experiments show the dependence of crater diameter to depth ratio on projectile density. On the other hand, the projectile velocities exceeding 4 km/s have no measurable influence on the D/T ratios of microcraters. As a result, diameter-to-depth measurements on lunar microcraters yield three groups of micrometeorites in the size range between 1 μm and 1 mm: iron-nickel, stony-iron and low-density particles. The measured D/T values correspond directly to the kind of determined projectile residues: craters showing residues of iron-nickel meteorites have ratios of D/T = 1.3–1.4 and craters with stony-iron residues have ratios ofD/T = 1.9–2.1.Craters with diameters ?30 μm seem to have been formed predominantly by iron-nickel micrometeorites, whereas craters with diameters ?80 μm predominantly by stony meteorites.     

岫岩陨石撞击坑的速度结构和抗震性能分析

岫岩陨石撞击坑位于辽东半岛北部低山丘陵地区,直径1.8km,保存完好。由于陨石的撞击和此后的沉积作用在坑内形成了特殊的地貌、地质和地球物理环境,使坑内与坑外的介质在速度方面存在差异,尤其是湖相沉积的软弱淤泥层使得坑底上建造的房屋就像躺在一张巨大的海绵垫上一样,使人们常常感到有微震发生,表明坑底的软弱地层对地面的震动产生了放大作用,严重地影响了地基的稳定性,从而影响到地面建筑物的抗震性能。本文采用高分辨折射探测方法,获得了陨石坑内的速度结构和软弱地层的分布,分析了陨石坑地基的抗震性能,为坑内地基和地面建筑物的地震危险性评价提供了可靠的基础资料。     

The roles of magma and groundwater in the phreatic eurptions at Inyo Craters,Long Valley Caldera,California

The Inyo Craters (North Inyo Crater and South Inyo Crater), and a third crater, Summit Crater, are the largest of more than a dozen 650- to 550-yr-B.p. phreatic craters that lie in a 1-km-square area at the south end of the Inyo Volcanic Chain, on the west side of the Long Valley Caldera in eastern California. The three craters are aligned within a 1-km-long northsouth system of fissures and normal faults, and coincide in age with aligned magmatic vents farther north in the Inyo Volcanic Chain, suggesting that they were all produced by intrusion of one or more dikes. To study the sequence and mechanisms of the eruptions, the deposits were mapped, sampled, and compared with subsurface stratigraphy obtained from the core of a slant hole drilled directly below the center of South Inyo Crater from the southwest. The deposits from the two Inyo Craters are fine-grained (median diameter less than 1 mm), are several meters thick at the crater walls, and cover at most a few km² of ground surface. Stratigraphic relationships between the Inyo Craters and Summit Crater indicate that the eruptions proceeded from north to south, overlapped slightly in time, and produced indistinctly plane-parallel bedded, poorly sorted deposits, containing debris derived primarily from within 450 m of the surface. Debris from the deepest identifiable unit (whose top is at 450 m depth) is present at the very base of both Inyo Craters deposits, suggesting that the eruptive vents were open and tapping debris from at least that depth, probably along preexisting fractures, even at their inception. According to ballistic studies, the greatest velocity of ejected blocks was of the order of 100 m/s. All eruptions, particularly the least powerful, selectively removed debris from the finest-grained, most easily eroded subsurface units. Although juvenile fragments have been previously identified in these deposits, they are confined primarily to the grain-size fraction smaller than 0.25 mm dia. and probably did not constitute more than several percent of the deposit. It is therefore suggested that these juvenile fragments were not the main source of heat for the eruptions, and that the eruptions were caused either by: (1) heating of water by fragmented magma that was not ejected before the eruption shut off; (2) slow heating (over months to years) of groundwater under confined conditions without fragmentation of magma, followed by a second process (pressure buildup, seismic faulting, or intrusions) that breached the confinement; or (3) breach of a pre-existing confined geothermal aquifer.     

Geology of the Side Crater of the Erebus volcano,Antarctica

The summit cone of the Erebus volcano contains two craters. The Main crater is roughly circular (∼ 500 m diameter) and contains an active persistent phonolite lava lake ∼ 200 m below the summit rim. The Side Crater is adjacent to the southwestern rim of the Main Crater. It is a smaller spoon-shaped Crater (250–350 m diameter, 50–100 m deep) and is inactive. The floor of the Side Crater is covered by snow/ice, volcanic colluvium or weakly developed volcanic soil in geothermal areas (a.k.a. warm ground). But in several places the walls of the Side Crater provide extensive vertical exposure of rock which offers an insight into the recent eruptive history of Erebus. The deposits consist of lava flows with subordinate volcanoclastic lithologies. Four lithostratigraphic units are described: SC 1 is a compound lava with complex internal flow fabrics; SC 2 consists of interbedded vitric lavas, autoclastic and pyroclastic breccias; SC 3 is a thick sequence of thin lavas with minor autoclastic breccias; SC 4 is a pyroclastic fall deposit containing large scoriaceous lava bombs in a matrix composed primarily of juvenile lapilli-sized pyroclasts. Ash-sized pyroclasts from SC 4 consist of two morphologic types, spongy and blocky, indicating a mixed strombolian-phreatomagmatic origin. All of the deposits are phonolitic and contain anorthoclase feldspar.     

Source of lead in Central American and Caribbean mineralization

The Zerga meteorite, an LL6 ordinary chondrite found at Aouelloul crater in 1973, is a small fragment of a larger mass whose pre-atmospheric radius was most likely between 20 and 125 cm. A typical amphoterite, it is a monomict breccia that has undergone at least one recrystallization episode.³He and²¹Ne contents define a shielding-corrected, cosmic ray exposure age of 21–24 × 10⁶ years and the²⁶Al content is consistent with a terrestrial age ?500,000 years (2σ limit). The K—Ar gas-retention age is 3.1 × 10⁹ years. The meteorite's areal association with the impact crater is merely coincidental. A new K-Ar age of the glassy impactite found at Aouelloul dates the crater at 3.1 ± 0.3 × 10⁶ years, sensibly indistinguishable from the recently determined age of nearby Tenoumer crater (2.5 ± 0.5 × 10⁶years). The similar ages of these two impact craters, and their almost perfect linear alignment with a third, morphologically similar crater (Temimichat Ghallaman) over a distance of 600 km, suggests a simultaneous triple impact occasioned by the disruption of a large meteorite moving on a very shallow atmospheric trajectory. If so, the concomitant low impact angles may be responsible for the unusually shallow original depths inferred for two of the craters from gravity data.     

K-Ar and fission track dating of Darwin Crater Glass

Darwin Glasses from the recently discovered Darwin Crater in Tasmania were dated by the K-Ar and the fission track methods. The ages by both methods agree and yield a combined age of 0.73 ± 0.04 my for the formation of Darwin Crater and Darwin Glass by an impact. Since an accidental coincidence of this age with the age of Australasian tektites is rather unlikely, we suppose that Darwin Crater is one of many — primary or secondary — impact structures caused by the collision of a meteorite or comet with the earth ～ 0.7 my ago in the region of South East Asia and Australia.     

Electrical resistivity tomography study of Taal volcano hydrothermal system, Philippines

Taal volcano (311?m in altitude) is located in The Philippines (14°N, 121°E) and since 1572 has erupted 33 times, causing more than 2,000 casualties during the most violent eruptions. In March 2010, the shallow structures in areas where present-day surface activity takes place were investigated by DC resistivity surveys. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) lines were performed above the two identified hydrothermal areas located on the northern flank of the volcano and in the Main Crater, respectively. Due to rough topography, deep valleys, and dense vegetation, most measurements were collected using a remote method based on a laboratory-made equipment. This allowed retrieval of information down to a depth of 250?m. ERTs results detail the outlines of the two geothermal fields defined by previous self-potential, CO₂ soil degassing, ground temperature, and magnetic mapping (Harada et al. Japan Acad Sci 81:261–266, 2005; Zlotnicki et al. Bull Volcanol 71:29–49, 2009a, Phys Chem Earth 34:294–408, 2009b). Hydrothermal fluids originate mainly from inside the northern part of the Main Crater at a depth greater than the bottom of the Crater Lake, and flow upward to the ground surface. Furthermore, water from the Main Crater Lake infiltrates inside the surrounding geological formations. The hydrothermal fluids, outlined by gas releases and high temperatures, cross the crater rim and interact with the northern geothermal field located outside the Main Crater.     

Crater formation in soils by raindrop impact

The process of crater formation by the impact of water drops on soil, sand and various other target material was studied. Craters of various shapes and sizes were observed on different target materials or conditions, ranging from circumferential depression to completely hemispherical shape. Crater shape was dependent upon target material, its ?ow stress or shear strength and the presence and thickness of water on the surface. Between 5 and 22 per cent of impact energy was spent on cratering, but the relationship between crater volume and kinetic energy of a raindrop was curvilinear, indicating a lower ef?ciency of impact energy in removing target material as the energy increases. Impact impulse, on the other hand, showed a more linear relationship with crater volume, and the ratio of impulse over crater volume (I/V) remained constant for the entire range of drop sizes, impact velocities, and surface conditions used in this study. Surface shear strength, represented by the penetration depth of fall‐cone penetrometer, appeared to be a key factor involved in this process. An equation was developed which related crater volume to cone penetration depth and impact impulse. Crater volume, which appeared to be a better indicator of the total amount of material dislodged by a raindrop than splash amount, can thus be predicted using this equation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Rochechouart crater: Shock zoning study

Rochechouart crater (France) occurs in crystalline rocks of the northwestern French Massif Central. The crater is deeply eroded and the present ground level is exactly (±50m) tangent to the crater floor. No morphologic evidence of the crater has been preserved. A complete range of shock effects is known on the scale of rocks and minerals, which permitted a study of shock zoning. Shock level was determined in thin section from petrographic analysis of each specimen. A systematic sampling was done on all the structure. Shock zones were determined at the same time in the fall-back unit and in the target. Correlations between rock types or shock level in allochthonous and autochthonous materials were observed. They imply restrictions for the late excavation stage: part of the material lying above the crater floor limit was never ejected, but only mixed with small relative displacement. Shock level is relatively higher in allochthonous breccias than in the target. The distribution of shock effects is very complicated at all scales, even at the scale of the whole structure. However, shock level is relatively high around the center of the structure defined from the breccia geometry. The most probable impact point is located about 4 km west of Rochechouart. The breccia unit is extremely thin (less than 60 m). The crater floor is extremely flat; its elevation does not vary more than±50m over the whole structure (about 300 km²). The lack of circular symmetry in particular in the distribution of impact melts could suggest a pronounced anisotropic structure of the target and/or an inclinated trajectory of the projectile. The original crater size is most probably between 20 and 25 km in diameter, determined from the actual extent of differents rock types or shock effects. A rapid post-crater readjustment is proposed to explain the flat floor. There was no important vertical displacement since the flat shape of the crater floor was attained.     

40Ar/39Ar age and thermal history of the Kirin chondrite

The Kirin meteorite, a large (2800kg) H5 chondrite, fell in Kirin Province, China in 1976. A sample from each of the two largest fragments (K-1, K-2) yield⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar total fusion ages of 3.63 ± 0.02b.y. and 2.78 ± 0.02b.y. respectively.⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age spectra show typical diffusional argon loss profiles. Maximum apparent ages of 4.36 b.y. (K-1) and ～4.0 b.y. (K-2) are interpreted as possible minimum estimates for the age of crystallization of the parent body.The⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages found for gas released at low temperature are about 2.2 b.y. for K-1 and about 0.5 b.y. for K-2, suggesting that this meteorite may have suffered two discrete collisional events that caused degassing of radiogenic argon. Modelling of possible thermal events in the parent body indicates that samples K-1 and K-2 were at a depth of less than 3 m from the base of an impact melt of a thickness less than 7 m and separated by no more than ～2 m from one another at the time of the heating event about 0.5 b.y. ago. Further, the duration of heating was probably less than a few years.Calculations from³⁸Ar data yield exposure ages for samples K-1 and K-2 of about 5 m.y., similar to that found for many other H chondrites.     

Age and intensity of thermal events by fission track analysis: The Ries impact crater

A thermal event reduces the number of previously registered fission tracks in a mineral dependent upon the track retention properties of the individual mineral. Apatite, sphene and zircon have retention properties over a wide range of temperatures (from 100° to 550°C); apatite data reveal information at lowest temperatures while sphene and zircon data are useful for higher temperatures.Thermal events within this temperature range of 100°C to about 550°C are suitable for study with this technique. The age of the event is determined from samples in which the fission tracks are completely erased, while minerals containing partially removed (erased) tracks provide information on the temperatures occurring during the thermal event.As a test case, the analysis of the temperatures developed by the meteorite impact which produced the Ries crater at 14.7 m.y. ago is presented.     

Origin of inert gases in “rusty rock” 66095

The amount of trapped inert gases present in rock 66095, as well as the elemental and isotopic composition of these gases can be explained by “contamination” of this rock - on the lunar surface - with as little as 0.2% of fines There is no compelling evidence that these gases come from the impact of a comet or a carbonaceous meteorite on the Moon, or that they represent genuine primordial lunar gas.The²¹Ne radiation age of 66095 is (1.1 ± 0.5) × 10⁶yr, which strongly suggests that this rock was excavated by the South Ray Crater event.     

Possible relations between meteorite impact and igneous petrogenesis,as indicated by the Sudbury structure,Ontario, Canada

Recent investigations indicate the importance of meteorite impact as a process which has operated throughout geologic time to produce numerous originally circular structures as much as 50 km in diameter. One such structure, at Sudbury, Ontario, is associated with large volumes of internally derived igneous rock. Geological and experimental studies have demonstrated that rocks subjected to intense shock waves produced by hypervelocity meteorite impacts and by nuclear or chemical explosions develop distinctive and uniqueshock-metamorphic features, including: (1) high-pressure minerals such as coesite and stishovite; (2) crystal lattice deformation features such as isotropic feldspar (maskelynite) and « planar features » (shock lamellae) in quartz; (3) ultra-high-temperature reactions not produced by normal geological processes, such as decomposition of zircon to baddeleyite and melting of quartz to lechatelierite. These petrographic features, currently regarded as unequivocal evidence for meteorite impact, can be preserved and recognized even in very old and deeply eroded structures. Such features have now been observed in more than 50 « crypto-explosion » structures ranging in size from 2 km to more than 60 km in diameter. The recent discovery of shock-metamorphic features in rocks of the Sudbury structure, Ontario, indicates that this old and complex structure was also produced by a large meteorite impact. Petrographic shock effects are widespread in inclusions of « basement » rock in the Onaping « tuff », a unit now regarded as afallback breccia deposited in the original crater immediately after impact. Similar shock effects also occur in the footwall rocks around the basin, associated with shatter cones and unusual Sudbury-type breccias. Study of Sudbury specimens has establishedgrades of progressive shock metamorphism comparable to those recognized at younger impact structures (Brent, Ontario; Ries basin, Germany). Igneous activity associated with known meteorite impact structures takes two forms:

1. direct production of impact melt. At many structures (e.g., Brent, Ontario; Lake Mien, Sweden; Clearwater Lakes and Manicouagan, Quebec), breccias containing shock-metamorphic features occur with «sills» and «dikes» of fine- to medium- grained crystalline igneous rock. Such units, previously regarded as internal volcanic products, now appear to have been formed by complete fusion, injection, and rapid crystallization of large volumes of target rock during the impact event.
2. emplacement of internally derived magma. The presence of the clearly internally-derived Nickel Irruptive within the Sudbury basin indicates that large meteorite impacts may also control the emplacement of internally-generated magmas through « unroofing » or by the production of deeply-extending zones of weakness below the crater.

The inferred development of the Sudbury structure was a complex process involving: (1) impact of an asteroidal body, forming a large (100-km) diameter crater with a central uplift; (2) subsidence of the central uplift and simultaneous emplacement of the Nickel Irruptive; (3) metamorphism, deformation, and erosion to its present appearance. The post-impact history of the Sudbury structure thus corresponds closely to that established for many ring-dike complexes and caldera subsidences. Similar compound impact-igneous structures, in which internal igneous activity is superimposed on a large impact crater, probably exist on both the earth and the moon. Future examination of « roofed lopoliths » and « ring-dike structures » for shock-metamorphic effects, combined with serious consideration of the geophysical effects produced by large-energy meteorite impacts, will be a productive field for cooperative studies by astrogeologists and igneous petrologists.     

The geology and geochronology of Al Wahbah maar crater,Harrat Kishb,Saudi Arabia

Al Wahbah is a large (∼2.2 km diameter, ∼250 m deep) maar crater in the Harrat Kishb volcanic field in western Saudi Arabia. It cuts Proterozoic basement rocks and two Quaternary basanite lava flows, and is rimmed with an eroded tuff ring of debris from the phreatomagmatic explosion that generated the crater. A scoria cone on the northern wall of the crater was dissected by the explosion and exposes a dolerite plug that was intruded immediately prior to crater formation. The dolerite plug yields a ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age of 1.147 ± 0.004 Ma. This is the best possible estimate of the time Al Wahbah crater formed. It is a few tens of thousand years younger than the age of the lower and upper basalt flows, 1.261 ± 0.021 Ma and 1.178 ± 0.007 Ma respectively. A dolerite dyke exposed within the basement in the wall of the crater is dated at 1.886 ± 0.008 Ma. This is the most precise age so far determined for the initiation of basaltic volcanism of Harrat Kishb, and confirms that it is significantly younger than the other post-rift volcanic provinces in the region. This study provides constrains the timing of humid climatic conditions in the region and suggests that the Quaternary basaltic volcanism that stretches the length of the western side of the Arabian peninsula may prove to be useful for establishing palaeoclimatic conditions.     

Net Recharge vs. Depth to Groundwater Relationship in the Platte River Valley of Nebraska,United States

One‐km resolution MODIS‐based mean annual evapotranspiration (ET) estimates in combination with PRISM precipitation rates were correlated with depth to groundwater (d) values in the wide alluvial valley of the Platte River in Nebraska for obtaining a net recharge (Rn) vs. d relationship. MODIS cells with irrigation were excluded, yielding a mixture of predominantly range, pasture, grass, and riparian forest covers on sandy soils with a shallow groundwater table. The transition depth (d_t) between negative and positive values of the net groundwater recharge was found to be at about 2 (±1) m. Within 1 (±1) m of the surface and at a depth larger than about 7 to 8 (±1) m, the mean annual net recharge became independent of d at a level of about ?4 (±12)% and 13 (±10)%, respectively, of the mean annual precipitation rate. The obtained Rn(d) relationship is based on a calibration‐free ET estimation method and may help in obtaining the net recharge in shallow groundwater areas of negligible surface runoff where sufficient groundwater‐depth data exist.     

Calculations of Asteroid Impacts into Deep and Shallow Water

Contrary to received opinion, ocean impacts of small (<500?m) asteroids do not produce tsunamis that lead to world-wide devastation. In fact the most dangerous features of ocean impacts, just as for land impacts, are the atmospheric effects. We present illustrative hydrodynamic calculations of impacts into both deep and shallow seas, and draw conclusions from a parameter study in which the size of the impactor and the depth of the sea are varied independently. For vertical impacts at 20?km/s, craters in the seafloor are produced when the water depth is less than about 5?C7 times the asteroid diameter. Both the depth and the diameter of the transient crater scale with the asteroid diameter, so the volume of water excavated scales with the asteroid volume. About a third of the crater volume is vaporised, because the kinetic energy per unit mass of the asteroid is much larger than the latent heat of vaporisation of water. The vaporised water carries away a considerable fraction of the impact energy in an explosively expanding blast wave which is responsible for devastating local effects and may affect worldwide climate. Of the remaining energy, a substantial portion is used in the crown splash and the rebound jet that forms as the transient crater collapses. The collapse and rebound cycle leads to a propagating wave with a wavelength considerably shorter than classical tsunamis, being only about twice the diameter of the transient crater. Propagation of this wave is hindered somewhat because its amplitude is so large that it breaks in deep water and is strongly affected by the blast wave??s perturbation of the atmosphere. Even if propagation were perfect, however, the volume of water delivered per metre of shoreline is less than was delivered by the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami for any impactor smaller than 500?m diameter in an ocean of 5?km depth or less. Near-field effects are dangerous for impactors of diameter 200?m or greater; hurricane-force winds can extend tens of kilometers from the impact point, and fallout from the initial splash can be extremely violent. There is some indication that near-field effects are more severe if the impact occurs in shallow water.