Collisional Chaos and Magnetic Mayhem - New approaches to recognizing impact craters and resolving magnetic alterations of shocked minerals

Constraining Earth’s collisional history is the only way we can learn about how Earth has been affected by impact cratering throughout its history.

Yet, we lack the tools needed to identify small or deeply eroded impact craters, and know relatively little about the effects of impact on quartz-lacking lithologies, hampering new discoveries of impact craters.

Impact cratering affects crustal magnetism, but it is presently unknown what naturally shock-induced microstructures lead to changes in magnetic properties of rocks, and there is much to learn about what rock magnetism can tell us about the cratering process.

In the proposed four-year project I will analyze terrestrial impactites using: (1) petrographic microscopy; (2) scanning electron microscopy with electron backscatter diffraction and transmission electron microscopy; (3) X-ray diffraction at Max IV in Lund; (4) magnetic measurements at the Lund Palaeomagnetic Laboratory; and (5) neutron- and X-ray tomography.

The results of the project will revolutionize the ability to identify impact structures on Earth.

It will shed light on the crater-forming process, including what naturally produced impact-induced microstructures in ferromagnetic minerals are responsible for changes in intrinsic magnetic properties of shocked rocks.

I will lead this novel multi-disciplinary approach that stretches across traditional science borders to provide unique insights into how impact cratering has affected the evolution of our planet.