Project Details
Projekt
Geological study of the crater rim and the ejecta blanket of the El´gygytgyn impact structure, Siberia
Applicant
Professor Dr. Wolf Uwe Reimold
Subject Area
Palaeontology
Term
from 2011 to 2013
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 204519934
In 2009 a ca. 500 m long drill core was extracted by ICDP from the El’gygytgyn impact structure. The project had two main purposes: to investigate the sedimentary crater fill for information about the paleoclimatic record for the high Arctic latitudes and to investigate the effect of the impact event on the felsic volcanic target. El’gygytgyn is one of only three terrestrial impact structures known from volcanic areas. Knowledge of impact into volcanics is of particular planetological importance, as planetary bodies such as Mars, Venus, and Mercury are largely covered by volcanic strata. Our group has curated the impactite section of the El’gygytgyn drill core at the Museum of Natural History Berlin. Only a limited record of the regional country rocks exists, with only a part of the crater rim and surrounding ejecta blanket having been geologically explored and sampled. In mid-2011 a joint Alfred-Wegener-Institut (AWI) - Geoforschiungszentrum Potsdam (GFZ) expedition will venture to the remote impact structure, thereby providing a unique opportunity to investigate the geology of the northern and eastern crater rim segments in order to complete the geological map of the crater structure and obtain samples from traverses across stratigraphy in this area. Because of the detailed lithological knowledge (clast population in impactite, nature of the shocked basement) gained from core study hitherto, our group is particularly well prepared to carry out this geological groundwork. Thus, we are applying for a new, independent grant to allow participation in the AWI-GFZ expedition to the crater and for subsequent analysis of a new sample suite
DFG Programme
Infrastructure Priority Programmes
