撞击过程和内太阳系撞击历史

在太阳系的形成和演化过程中,发生在天体物质间的撞击作用是最重要的地质过程之一.撞击构造是地外天体表面最常见的地貌单元,大部分天体的地貌演化主要受撞击作用控制.撞击过程产生的温度、压力和应变速率比岩石圈内的其他地质过程高多个数量级,形成广泛分布的撞击产物,如气化物、熔融物、冲击变质和变形等.虽然撞击过程转瞬即逝,撞击作用向天体注入能量并改变其内、外结构,对天体的圈层系统产生长远影响.持续撞击在天体表面累积了大量的撞击坑,撞击坑的空间分布反映了受外来撞击的历史.内太阳系在～3. 8 Ga前的撞击频率更高,但是大量撞击盆地是否灾变式的密集形成仍在持续争议;～3. 8 Ga以来的撞击频率趋于稳定,但是缺乏具有明确事件指代性的标定样品.在同一天体上,撞击坑的空间密度指示了相应地质单元的形成时间,因此撞击坑统计常被用于估算地外天体表面地质单元的相对年龄.基于月球软着陆探测任务返回的样品,前人已约束了不同直径的月球撞击坑的形成频率,进而建立了使用撞击坑统计估算月球表面地质单元的绝对模式年龄的方法.另外,内太阳系天体可能经历了相似的撞击历史,因此地-月系统的撞击频率已被缩放至其他类地行星.撞击坑统计是探索太阳系天体的撞击历史、遥估地外天体表面的相对和绝对年龄的主要方法,也是行星地质研究的基本工具.该方法的整体可靠性已得到大量实验的验证.同时,该方法在理论基础和技术细节上还存在大量的不确定性.修正该方法是完善太阳系撞击历史的重要研究内容,也是未来采样返回探测任务的重要科学目标.     

Multiring-forming large bolide impacts and evolution of planetary surfaces

In the past few years, meteoritic and cometary impacts have emerged as a major geological agent in the construction and evolution of planetary surfaces. Formation of complex central ring, peak ring and multiring craters involves excavation and melting of large volumes of crustal material. High-resolution geophysical mapping measuring gravity, magnetics, and topography of the Moon and Mars have recently provided information on the subsurface structure of large basins and aided in identifying buried giant craters. The terrestrial crater record has been significantly erased by tectonic, magmatic, and erosion processes and only a small proportion of impact structures remain. Record of multiring craters is limited to three examples: Vredefort, Sudbury and Chicxulub. Deep geophysical surveys and geochemical and isotopic studies of those craters provide means to evaluate the influence of large impacts on the lithospheric and crustal evolution by providing estimates of excavation depth and volume, amounts of material fragmented, ejected, vaporized and melted, and effects on the crustal stratigraphy and crustal thickness. Analyses on the melt from Vredefort, Sudbury, and Chicxulub indicate andesitic composition derived from lower-crustal material. The melt formed inside the lower transient cavity from lower crustal material that was then redistributed and emplaced in upper-crustal levels, resulting in crustal redistribution. Crystalline basement clasts fragmented and incorporated into the breccias show varying degrees of alteration but no significant thermal effects. Ejecta were deposited locally within the crater region and ballistic material and fine ejecta are globally distributed on the planetary surface. Impacts influence the crust–mantle boundary, with Moho uplift. Material from the mantle was not incorporated into the melt and impact breccias, indicating that the excavation cavities were confined to the lower crust. This is also apparently the case for the giant basins on the Moon, including the 2500 km diameter South Pole-Aitken Basin. Considering the numbers of large multiring basins, possible flux of large impacts, and effects on target surfaces, crustal scale redistribution of material during those large impacts has played a major role in the evolution of planetary surfaces.     

The convincing identification of terrestrial meteorite impact structures: What works,what doesn't,and why

In the geological sciences it has only recently been recognized how important the process of impact cratering is on a planetary scale, where it is commonly the most important surface-modifying process. On the Moon and other planetary bodies that lack an appreciable atmosphere, meteorite impact craters are well preserved, and they can commonly be recognized from morphological characteristics, but on Earth complications arise as a consequence of the weathering, obliteration, deformation, or burial of impact craters and the projectiles that formed them. These problems made it necessary to develop diagnostic criteria for the identification and confirmation of impact structures on Earth. Diagnostic evidence for impact events is often present in the target rocks that were affected by the impact. The conditions of impact produce an unusual group of melted, shocked, and brecciated rocks, some of which fill the resulting crater, and others which are transported, in some cases to considerable distances from the source crater. Only the presence of diagnostic shock-metamorphic effects and, in some cases, the discovery of meteorites, or traces thereof, is generally accepted as unambiguous evidence for an impact origin. Shock deformation can be expressed in macroscopic form (shatter cones) or in microscopic forms (e.g., distinctive planar deformation features [PDFs] in quartz). In nature, shock-metamorphic effects are uniquely characteristic of shock levels associated with hypervelocity impact. The same two criteria (shock-metamorphic effects or traces of the impacting meteorite) apply to distal impact ejecta layers, and their presence confirms that materials found in such layers originated in an impact event at a possibly still unknown location. As of 2009 about 175 impact structures have been identified on Earth based on these criteria. A wide variety of shock-metamorphic effects has been identified, with the best diagnostic indicators for shock metamorphism being features that can be studied easily by using the polarizing microscope. These include specific planar microdeformation features (planar fractures [PFs], PDFs), isotropization (e.g., formation of diaplectic glasses), and phase changes (high pressure phases; melting). The present review provides a detailed discussion of shock effects and geochemical tracers that can be used for the unambiguous identification of impact structures, as well as an overview of doubtful criteria or ambiguous lines of evidence that have erroneously been applied in the past.     

月表典型区撞击坑形态分类及分布特征

月球表面环形构造主要有撞击坑、火山口和月海穹窿3种,其中撞击坑分布最广泛,是研究月表环形构造的主要内容。由于月表撞击坑数量大、种类多及其形成伴随着整个月球地质的演化过程,因此这种月表地形地貌比较完整地记录了月球表面地貌随时间的改造过程以及改造类型。文中通过研究撞击坑遥感影像及形貌特征,总结归纳为简单型、碗型、平底型、中央隆起型、同心环型、复杂型及月海残留型7种撞击坑类型,用来描述月表典型区域撞击坑的形态特征。从结构和物质两方面进行了月表典型区域撞击坑的形态地貌参数提取,综合利用嫦娥一号CCD 影像数据、LROC数据,得到了该区域撞击坑形态数据(坑底、坑唇、坑壁、坑缘、溅射物覆盖层、中央峰)和形态测量数据(直径、深度、地理位置)。研究发现,LQ 4地区的撞击坑分布可分为月陆区和月海区,月陆区的撞击坑多以中小型撞击坑为主,其分布密度极高,形成年代较早,月海区撞击坑多为年轻的撞击坑,分化程度较低,分布密度也较低。     

Factors influencing the morphology of volcanic landforms: An earth-moon comparison

The products of volcanism on the Earth and Moon differ widely in terms of morphology, distribution, composition, and age. These differences result partly from the different thermal histories of the two bodies and partly through the different controls on volcanic eruption conditions. The controls of volcanism are here separated into three groups: (1) controls which remain constant on any one body but which differ from planet to planet: (2) parameters that are controlled by the rheology of the magma: and (3) controls which are intrinsic properties of individual eruptions and are themselves dependent upon the planetary and rheological variables. In terms of planetary variables it can be predicted that lunar volcanic morphologies are influenced by greater tephra range, hemispherical eruption clouds, lesser lithostatic pressures at corresponding depths, slower cooling, slower erosion, lesser horizontal stress differences, and no features typical of hydrosphere-magma interaction. In terms of rheology, the lunar eruptions had different rock and gas compositions, low yield strengths and viscosities, and high densities. Many lunar basalts appear to have been produced at high eruption rates, to have been derived from monogenetic volcanoes, and to have flowed in a turbulent manner.The weight of available data points to the vast majority of lunar craters being of impact origin though some dark halo craters, sinuous rille source craters, rimless pits, and craters atop domes and cones are undoubtedly of volcanic origin. Other impact craters appear to have been modified by volcanic events. Included within this latter group are the floor-fractured craters and the mare basins.Studies of volcanic morphologies on bodies other than the Earth may help isolate the effectiveness of those controls of volcanism which remain constant on any one body. Although volcanology has advanced substantially within the last few decades, much more detailed integrated scientific research is required before we are able to predict confidently the environmental hazards that result from volcanism and to understand the role of volcanism in planetary evolution.     

Evidence for plunging river plume deposits in the Pahrump Hills member of the Murray formation,Gale crater,Mars

Recent robotic missions to Mars have offered new insights into the extent, diversity and habitability of the Martian sedimentary rock record. Since the Curiosity rover landed in Gale crater in August 2012, the Mars Science Laboratory Science Team has explored the origins and habitability of ancient fluvial, deltaic, lacustrine and aeolian deposits preserved within the crater. This study describes the sedimentology of a ca 13 m thick succession named the Pahrump Hills member of the Murray formation, the first thick fine‐grained deposit discovered in situ on Mars. This work evaluates the depositional processes responsible for its formation and reconstructs its palaeoenvironmental setting. The Pahrump Hills succession can be sub‐divided into four distinct sedimentary facies: (i) thinly laminated mudstone; (ii) low‐angle cross‐stratified mudstone; (iii) cross‐stratified sandstone; and (iv) thickly laminated mudstone–sandstone. The very fine grain size of the mudstone facies and abundant millimetre‐scale and sub‐millimetre‐scale laminations exhibiting quasi‐uniform thickness throughout the Pahrump Hills succession are most consistent with lacustrine deposition. Low‐angle geometric discordances in the mudstone facies are interpreted as ‘scour and drape’ structures and suggest the action of currents, such as those associated with hyperpycnal river‐generated plumes plunging into a lake. Observation of an overall upward coarsening in grain size and thickening of laminae throughout the Pahrump Hills succession is consistent with deposition from basinward progradation of a fluvial‐deltaic system derived from the northern crater rim into the Gale crater lake. Palaeohydraulic modelling constrains the salinity of the ancient lake in Gale crater: assuming river sediment concentrations typical of floods on Earth, plunging river plumes and sedimentary structures like those observed at Pahrump Hills would have required lake densities near freshwater to form. The depositional model for the Pahrump Hills member presented here implies the presence of an ancient sustained, habitable freshwater lake in Gale crater for at least ca 10³ to 10⁷ Earth years.     

Impact cratering and distal ejecta: the Australian record

The Australian continent has one of the best-preserved impact-cratering records on Earth, closely rivalling that of North America and parts of northern Europe, and the rate of new discoveries remains high. In this review 26 impact sites are described, including five small meteorite craters or crater fields associated with actual meteorite fragments (Boxhole, Dalgaranga, Henbury, Veevers, Wolfe Creek) and 21 variably eroded or buried impact structures (Acraman, Amelia Creek, Connolly Basin, Foelsche, Glikson, Goat Paddock, Gosses Bluff, Goyder, Kelly West, Lawn Hill, Liverpool, Matt Wilson, Mt Toondina, Piccaninny, Shoemaker, Spider, Strangways, Tookoonooka, Woodleigh, Yallalie, Yarrabubba). In addition a number of possible impact structures have been proposed and a short list of 22 is detailed herein. The Australian cratering record is anomalously biased towards old structures, and includes the Earth's best record of Proterozoic impact sites. This is likely to be a direct result of aspects of the continent's unique geological evolution. The Australian impact record also includes distal ejecta in the form of two tektite strewn fields (Australasian strewn field, ‘high-soda’ tektites), a single report of 12.1?–?4.6 Ma microtektites, ejecta from the ca 580 Ma Acraman impact structure, and a number of Archaean to Early Palaeoproterozoic impact spherule layers. Possible impact related layers near the Eocene?–?Oligocene and the Permian?–?Triassic boundaries have been described in the literature, but remain unconfirmed. The global K?–?T boundary impact horizon has not been recognised onshore in Australia but is present in nearby deep-sea cores.     

国内外对天体撞击地球的撞击构造研究的新进展

以 31届国际地质大会有关论文为基础 ,综述了国内外撞击构造研究的最新进展 ,分 4个方面 :(1)新的撞击坑发现与报道 :除已知的 145个之外 ,还有巴西的 14个撞击坑 ,其中 7个目前已经证实 ;蒙古的 2 0个撞击坑 ,其中 11个已经证实 ;中国自 2 0世纪 70年代以来发现和报道的 8个撞击坑和对它们的研究简况。 (2 )撞击构造与地球演化 :涉及到地球的起源 ,天体撞击在地球形成中的作用 ,撞击周期 ,撞击与地磁 ,地轴变动的关系 ,撞击作用与板块构造 ,撞击与地球内动力的关系 ,太阳系其他行星上的撞击作用对比。 (3)撞击构造研究方法 :包括对复杂撞击坑中心隆起的深钻研究成果 ,对海洋巨型撞击坑的地震测量 ,撞击熔岩的分异与蚀变的物理化学实验计算 ,深部流体与撞击作用的研究进展 ,撞击压力测量的新方法 ,撞击变质作用在矿物学上的进展 ,撞击数学模型的建立与应用。 (4 )撞击构造与经济矿产 :包括金刚石 ,宝玉石 ,Au ,Ag ,Cu ,Ni,Co ,Se ,Te ,Pb ,Zn ,PGE ,REE ,U ,Th等多种元素与矿产以及石油、煤、天然气与撞击构造的关系 ,这些矿产在成因、分布规律、控制作用与撞击构造的关系。     

地月系统不同成因环形构造及其影像特征

环形构造是一种常见的地质现象,特别是在月球上分布更为普遍。本文论述了三种成因的环形构造,即:侵入岩成因的环形构造,火山成因的环形构造,以及小天体撞击形成的撞击坑。文中详细介绍了它们的成因与结构特征,指出侵入岩成因的环形构造主要由岩浆冷凝收缩形成,在遥感影像上主要表现为影像色调的不同;火山成因的环形构造为火山口,在遥感影像上具有环形结构;而小天体撞击形成的撞击坑形态复杂,如碗形坑、中心锥环形坑与多环撞击坑,撞击坑的坑沿外缓内陡,遥感影像上表现为环形或弧形构造,有些撞击坑具有辐射纹。     

Geology of five small Australian impact craters

Here we present detailed geological maps and cross-sections of Liverpool, Wolfe Creek, Boxhole, Veevers and Dalgaranga craters. Liverpool crater and Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater are classic bowl-shaped, Barringer-type craters. Liverpool was likely formed during the Neoproterozoic and was filled and covered with sediments soon thereafter. In the Cenozoic, this cover was exhumed exposing the crater's brecciated wall rocks. Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater displays many striking features, including well-bedded ejecta units, crater-floor faults and sinkholes, a ringed aeromagnetic anomaly, rim-skirting dunes, and numerous iron-rich shale balls. Boxhole Meteorite Crater, Veevers Meteorite Crater and Dalgaranga crater are smaller, Odessa-type craters without fully developed, steep, overturned rims. Boxhole and Dalgaranga craters are developed in highly foliated Precambrian basement rocks with a veneer of Holocene colluvium. The pre-existing structure at these two sites complicates structural analyses of the craters, and may have influenced target deformation during impact. Veevers Meteorite Crater is formed in Cenozoic laterites, and is one of the best-preserved impact craters on Earth. The craters discussed herein were formed in different target materials, ranging from crystalline rocks to loosely consolidated sediments, containing evidence that the impactors struck at an array of angles and velocities. This facilitates a comparative study of the influence of these factors on the structural and topographic form of small impact craters.     

孔隙水压力及炸药埋深对堤坝爆炸效应的影响分析

爆炸荷载作用下的堤坝破坏形态研究在国防以及工程应用中都具有重要意义。为了研究堤坝在不同爆炸工况下产生的破坏形态,在LS-DYNA软件框架内,建立了适合于爆炸荷载作用下土体动力分析的实用模型,并基于多物质ALE法,对均质土坝遭受爆炸袭击开展了仿真分析,得到了不同炸药埋深以及不同孔隙水压力上升程度下的堤坝爆炸弹坑形态。结果表明,随着炸药埋深的增加,堤坝弹坑尺寸具有增大的趋势,但当埋深超过一定范围,则无法形成弹坑;同时,爆炸荷载作用下含水土体的孔隙水压力发展对弹坑的形成具有重要影响,孔隙水压力上升程度越强,产生的弹坑尺寸就越大。研究结果可以为堤坝抗爆安全设计以及爆破拆除堰塞坝等工程提供参考。     

基于最优分割分级法的月球撞击坑分级及其演化分析

撞击坑是月球表面广泛分布的重要构造形态,占据了月球表面的大部分面积。撞击坑的直径差别很大,从几微米到数百千米,其退化程度与形成年代具有密切关系。为了研究不同地质年代形成的撞击坑直径大小及其演化规律,需采用量化分级方法对大小不同的撞击坑进行定量分级和统计分析。本文在月表撞击坑数据库LU60645GT和Lunar_Impact_Crater_Database(2011)的基础上,结合数据库中撞击坑的直径、深度和年代信息,利用最优分割分级法对撞击坑直径进行定量化分级,并根据分级结果,综合分析撞击坑几何形态特征及其演化规律。研究结果表明,撞击坑形态特征的演化与年代有密切的关系。在相同级别、相同地体下,撞击坑形成的年代越早,其形态特征的精细结构退化程度越明显,只保留了大体的几何形状;而在不同级别、相同地体、相同年代下的撞击坑形态特征则由简单逐渐变为复杂,坑物质也逐渐变得复杂。     

世界陨石坑研究

本文综述了全球陨石坑研究的研究历史和最新成果、基本的概念、陨石坑的识别要点、世界著名的陨石坑、陨石撞击地球可能引起的岩浆活动、陨石撞击与生命演化等内容。确定一个陨石坑,要从有一定弧度的地貌开始,鉴别低平圆形地质体是陨石还是其它原因造成的,综合确定岩石的岩石学特征、岩石中是否有撞击变质矿物、残余陨石、重力异常。陨石撞击太阳系的所有行星。由于地球表面遭受严重的风化和侵蚀,地质学家很难发现陨石坑。截至2021年3月31日,全球陨石坑数据库中有190个经确认的陨石坑,但中国只有一个,中国地质学家在发现陨石坑方面应当积极努力。对一个陨石坑认识可能不很成熟,但往往能改变对一个地区的地质成因理论的认识,形成完整的陨石坑证据链可能需要几代科学家的不断努力。     

世界陨石坑研究

本文综述了全球陨石坑研究的研究历史和最新成果、基本的概念、陨石坑的识别要点、世界著名的陨石坑、陨石撞击地球可能引起的岩浆活动、陨石撞击与生命演化等内容。确定一个陨石坑,要从有一定弧度的地貌开始,鉴别低平圆形地质体是陨石还是其他原因造成的,综合确定岩石的岩石学特征、岩石中是否有撞击变质矿物、残余陨石、重力异常。陨石撞击太阳系的所有行星。由于地球表面遭受严重的风化和侵蚀,地质学家很难发现陨石坑。截至2021年3月31日,全球陨石坑数据库中有190个经确认的陨石坑,但中国只有一个,中国地质学家在发现陨石坑方面应当积极努力。对一个陨石坑认识可能不很成熟,但往往能改变对一个地区的地质成因理论的认识,形成完整的陨石坑证据链可能需要几代科学家的不断努力。     

Meteorite impact structures: the good and the bad

Meteorite impact structures are found on all planetary bodies in the Solar System with a solid surface. On many planets, impact craters are the dominant landform. Earth's active geology, however, tends to rapidly erase impact structures from the geological record, although we know currently of 174 confirmed impact sites. Impact events are destructive and have been linked to at least one of the 'big five' mass extinctions over the past 540 Ma. But they also provide certain economic benefits, including the formation of metalliferous ore deposits and hydrocarbon reservoirs. Impact structures can also form new biological niches, which can provide favourable conditions for the survival and evolution of life. Despite this, it was only in the past 40 years that the importance of impact cratering as a geological process was recognized and only during the past 15–20 years that the study of meteorite impact structures has moved into the geological mainstream. There is, therefore, still considerable potential for new and exciting advancements.     

行星构造:寻求地球演化的踪迹

地质构造是记录地球内、外动力地质作用过程的标志.和地球相似,太阳系其他天体上也发育丰富的地质构造.以研究天体表面的地质构造及其动力学机制为目的的"行星构造学"是建立在构造地质学、遥感地质学和地球物理学等学科基础上的一门新兴前沿学科.由于天体的大小、组分和轨道位置不同,表面构造特征及其形成机制各异.对比研究地球和其他天体...     

Big returns on small samples: Lessons learned from the analysis of small lunar samples and implications for the future scientific exploration of the Moon

Samples returned from the surface of planetary bodies are both complementary to orbital and in situ observations and provide a unique perspective for understanding the nature and evolution of that body. This unique perspective is based on the scale the sample is viewed (mm-Å), the ability to manipulate the sample, the capability to analyze the sample at high precision and accuracy, and the ability to significantly modify experiments as logic and technology dictates over an extended period of time (decades). Unlike the Apollo missions, robotic sample return missions in the next decade will result in the return of relatively small sample mass. Such robotically returned samples are scientifically more valuable if they can be placed within a planetary context through orbital observations and if information concerning planetary-scale processes and conditions can be extracted from them. Conversely, samples give remotely sensed data ground truth. That is, they act as a “calibration standard” for these data allowing a much enhanced global view to be constructed.The Moon is an example that illustrates how information can be extracted from small samples and then extended to planetary and solar system scales. Three examples from the Moon illustrate this point. First, multi-analytical and experimental studies of minute (10-500 μm) glass beads representing near-primary magmas provide constraints on the composition and condition of the lunar mantle, the style of early planetary differentiation, the history and character of early mantle dynamics and melting, and the isolation of the lunar mantle from late-stages of lunar accretion. Second, trace element analysis of individual mineral grains via ion microprobe and isotopic analysis of small rock fragments representing some of the oldest and youngest periods of lunar magmatism illustrate their usefulness for both fingerprinting distinct episodes of lunar magmatism and reconstructing the evolution of lunar magmatism. Third, mechanisms for primitive planetary mantles degassing and volatile transport on airless bodies can be understood by the analysis of volatile coatings on glass and mineral fragments in the lunar regolith.As many of our insights about the Moon are based on samples that primarily were collected within a limited lunar terrain, our understanding of the Moon is somewhat biased. Future scientifically strategic sampling targets are young mare basalts (Roris basalt in Oceanus Procellarum), far-side mare basalts (Mare Moscoviense), large pyroclastic deposits and potential mantle xenoliths (Aristarchus plateau, Rima Bode) major unsampled crustal lithologies outside the Procellarum KREEP terrane (central peak in Tsiolkovsky crater, South-pole Aitken basin), basin and crater melt sheets (South-pole Aitken basin, Giordano Bruno) and H deposits in permanently shaded areas (South-pole Aitken basin). Sampling these locations would further our understanding of processes at work during the early evolution of the terrestrial planets, provide a comprehensive history of endogenous (e.g., primary volcanic degassing) and exogenous (e.g., solar wind, galactic cosmic rays, volatiles from comets) volatile reservoirs and volatile transport and would provide unique historical information about events and processes that affected the entire inner solar system, a record obscured on the Earth and Mars.     

Mapping Lunar Olivine Using Clementine Spectral Indices and Chemical Composition Parameters

Olivine exposures at the central peak of Copernicus crater of the Earth's Moon have been confirmed by telescope observations and Clementine spectra data.Using these exposures as training sites,this stu...     

Impact cratering — fundamental process in geoscience and planetary science

Impact cratering is a geological process characterized by ultra-fast strain rates, which generates extreme shock pressure and shock temperature conditions on and just below planetary surfaces. Despite initial skepticism, this catastrophic process has now been widely accepted by geoscientists with respect to its importance in terrestrial — indeed, in planetary — evolution. About 170 impact structures have been discovered on Earth so far, and some more structures are considered to be of possible impact origin. One major extinction event, at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, has been firmly linked with catastrophic impact, but whether other important extinction events in Earth history, including the so-called “Mother of All Mass Extinctions” at the Permian-Triassic boundary, were triggered by huge impact catastrophes is still hotly debated and a subject of ongoing research. There is a beneficial side to impact events as well, as some impact structures worldwide have been shown to contain significant (in some cases, world class) ore deposits, including the gold-uranium province of the Witwatersrand basin in South Africa, the enormous Ni and PGE deposits of the Sudbury structure in Canada, as well as important hydrocarbon resources, especially in North America. Impact cratering is not a process of the past, and it is mandatory to improve knowledge of the past-impact record on Earth to better constrain the probability of such events in the future. In addition, further improvement of our understanding of the physico-chemical and geological processes fundamental to the impact cratering process is required for reliable numerical modeling of the process, and also for the correlation of impact magnitude and environmental effects. Over the last few decades, impact cratering has steadily grown into an integrated discipline comprising most disciplines of the geosciences as well as planetary science, which has created positive spin-offs including the study of paleo-environments and paleo-climatology, or the important issue of life in extreme environments. And yet, in many parts of the world, the impact process is not yet part of the geoscience curriculum, and for this reason, it deserves to be actively promoted not only as a geoscientific discipline in its own right, but also as an important life-science discipline.