Meteorite Impacts

El presente trabajo analiza los tres sitios de probables estructuras de impacto en Bolivia que son: Iturralde, Llica y Colluma, a partir de información recopilada y utilizando modelización geofísica mediante datos geofísicos, consistentes en gravimetría y magnetometría espacial y terrestre; imágenes satelitales y Modelos Digitales de Elevación. A su vez, se presenta un modelo actualizado de la estructura de impacto Iturralde que son respaldados por un nuevo  modelo de anomalías gravimétricas que aportan nuevas evidencias que confirmarían que el mismo sería el único cráter de impacto de tipo complejo debido a la caída de un meteorito de 400 m de diámetro.

Descriptions of natural events, such as fireballs, and meteorite impacts, are found within Indigenous Australian oral traditions. Studies of oral traditions demonstrate that they extend beyond the realm of myth and legend; they contain structured knowledge about the natural world (science) as well as historic accounts of natural events and geo-hazards. These traditions could lead to the discovery of meteorites and impact sites previously unknown to Western science. In addition to benefiting the scientific study of meteoritics, this study can help social scientists better understand the nature and longevity of oral traditions and further support the growing body of evidence that oral traditions contain historical accounts of natural events. In a previous study led by the author in 2009, no meteorite-related oral traditions were identified that led to the discovery of meteorites and/or impact craters. This article challenges those initial findings.

The Carswell structure in the western Athabasca Basin, northern Saskatchewan (Canada), has previously been interpreted as an eroded impact structure with a minimum diameter of ~36 km, the outer margin of which is broadly defined by an outer ring of sediments composed of the only algal reefs observed in the Athabasca Group, the Carswell Formation. This ring surrounds an 18-km-wide uplifted basement core composed of gneiss units of Archean to Paleoproterozoic age that display shatter cones, planar deformation features (PDFs), pseudotachylyte veins, and impact melts and breccias (Cluff melt sheet, Cluff breccias) indicating that pressures and temperatures locally exceeded 60 GPa and 1500 °C. Detailed analysis of the basement–Athabasca Group contact from field and drill core samples indicates that shock features are not present in the Athabasca Group sediments in direct contact with the highly shocked basement gneisses. This pattern is inconsistent with a post–Athabasca Group age for the impact. Moreover, our study has revealed PDF-bearing quartz grains in basal units of the Athabasca Group 14 km south of the southern edge of the basement core (outside the estimated outer ring). The new proposed model suggests that the impact event is of pre-Athabasca (Proterozoic) age and that it produced a multiring structure that controlled the paleogeography of the Athabasca Group units in the western part of the basin. The model is well supported by basin analysis and gravity data. The Carswell Formation is the result of algal reefs building on peak-ring–related seamounts at the end of Athabasca Group deposition. The overturned bedding observed locally adjacent to the basement core is interpreted as the result of gravity-driven readjustment of the central uplift.

    Accepted 29 September 2009.

The last three decades have seen a growing awareness that the planet Earth and human civilizations might be much more threatened by extraterrestrial objects than previously thought. It has been suggested on many occasions that the course of human prehistory has been remarkably shaped by big meteorite impacts, airbursts of meteoroids, or the load of the atmosphere with cosmic dust. Myths and motifs are interpreted to encode information of such events. This article brings to the fore a series of essential methodological steps which may strengthen such interpretations.

L.A.I.S Luminescence Dating in Archaeology published as peer reviewed selective articles MAA 2010 Vol.10.4 (2010)
Free Downloaded from www.maajournal.com
Cite  excellent articles in luminescence dating!!!

CONTENTS

LUMINESCENCE DATING WORK FROM THE HEIDELBERG GROUP – A KEY TECHNOLOGY IN GEOARCHAEOLOGY

G. A. WAGNER, A. KADEREIT


A SURVEY OF SOME NEW APPROACHES IN EXTENDING THE MAXIMUM AGE LIMIT AND ACCURACY OF LUMINESCENCE APPLICATION TO ARCHAEOLOGICAL CHRONOMETRY

A.K. SINGHVI, N. CHAUHAN, R.H. BISWAS



THE CHIEMGAU METEORITE IMPACT AND TSUNAMI EVENT (SOUTHEAST GERMANY): FIRST OSL DATING

I. LIRITZIS , N. ZACHARIAS, G.S. POLYMERIS, G. KITIS, K. ERNSTSON,
D. SUDHAUS, A. NEUMAIR, W. MAYER, M.A. RAPPENGLÜCK,
B. RAPPENGLÜCK



LUMINESCENCE DATING OF PREHISTORIC SITE OF SMINTHEION
(GULPINAR) IN NW TURKEY

N.G. KIYAK, T. TAKAOĞLU, A.E. ERGINAL, H. OZCAN


ESTABLISHING A CHRONOLOGY FOR LANDSCAPE EVOLUTION AROUND A FINAL PALAEOLITHIC SITE AT ARENDONK - KORHAAN (NE BELGIUM): FIRST RESULTS FROM OPTICALLY STIMULATED LUMINESCENCE DATING

C. DERESE, D.A.G. VANDENBERGHE, M. VAN GILS, B. VANMONTFORT, E. MEIRSMAN, F. MEES, P. VAN DEN HAUTE


OPTIMISATION OF PREPARATION AND MEASUREMENT PROTOCOLS FOR LUMINESCENCE DATING OF SMALL SAMPLES FROM A SUITE OF PORCELAINS AND FAIENCES

C.I. BURBRIDGE, A.L. RODRIGUES, M.I. DIAS, M.I. PRUDENCIO, G. CARDOSO



TL AND OSL RESPONSE OF TURQUOISE FOR DOSIMETRIC APPLICATION

B. SUBEDI, D. AFOUXENIDIS, G.S. POLYMERIS, N. TSIRLIGNANIS,
K.M. PARASKEVOPOULOS, G. KITIS

THERMAL QUENCHING OF THERMOLUMINESCENCE IN QUARTZ SAMPLES OF VARIOUS ORIGINS

B. SUBEDI, D. AFOUXENIDIS, G.S. POLYMERIS,  K. BAKOGLIDIS,
S. RAPTIS, N. TSIRLIGANIS, G. KITIS


TOWARDS LUMINESCENCE DATING OF MOSAIC GLASS

A.GALLI, M. MARTINI, E. SIBILA, I. VILLA

PRELIMINARY TL AND OSL INVESTIGATION OF A NATURALLY AND ARTIFICIALLY IRRADIATED OBSIDIAN

G. S. POLYMERIS,  D. GOGOU , D. AFOUXENIDIS, S. RAPTI, 
N. C. TSIRLIGANIS,  G. KITIS


INVESTIGATION OF THE OSL SIGNAL FROM VERY DEEP TRAPS IN NATURAL QUARTZ

    G. KITIS, N.G. KIYAK, G.S. POLYMERIS, V. PAGONIS¬¬


THICK SOURCE ALPHA PARTICLE SPECTROSCOPY:
POSSIBILITIES AND PROSPECTS

C.T. MICHAEL, N. ZACHARIAS, A. HEIN



NEW DATA ON THE CATHODOLUMINESCENCE OF WHITE MARBLES: INTERPRETATION OF PEAKS AND RELATIONSHIPS TO WEATHERING

J. GARCIA-GUINEA, E. CRESPO-FEO, V. CORRECHER, A. IORDANIDIS, G. CHARALAMPIDES, G. KARAMITROU-MENTESSIDI


RETHINKING ABOUT CHRONOLOGY OF CHICHEN ITZA: BY THERMOLUMINESCENCE DATING OF VOLCANIC GLASS

H. CHUNG, P. GONZALEZ, A. RAMIREZ, P. SCHAAF, I. LEE


ANALYSIS OF ZAPOTEC CERAMICS OF THE CAXONOS RIVER BASIN, OAXACA, MEXICO BY THERMOLUMINESCENCE (TL)

A. RAMIREZ, P. SCHAAF, E. ORTIZ

EDITORIAL FORWARD BY THE GUEST EDITOR

L.A.I.S. (Luminescence in Archaeology International Symposia), a new international initiative that mainly focuses on the use of luminescence dating for materials and questions of archaeological significance, was formed in 2009 and in September 9-12 of that year, the 1st Symposium was realised at the European Cultural Centre of Delphi, Greece.
L.A.I.S. is managed by an ad hoc International Standing Committee: I. Bailiff (U.K.), M. Chithambo (S. Africa), J. Feathers (U.S.A.), Ι. Liritzis (President, Greece), M. Martini (Italy), A. Murray (Denmark), D. Richter (Germany), R. Roberts (Australia), S. Li (Hong Kong, China), A.K. Singhvi (India), G. Wagner (Germany), N. Zacharias (Greece). 1st L.A.I.S. was organised by the Greek scholars: G. Kitis, I. Liritzis, C.T.  Michael, G. Polymeris, N. Tsirliganis, A. Vafiadou and N. Zacharias.
During the 1st L.A.I.S. Symposium 34 papers were presented from 37 registered authors oriented from all continents. This special issue 10_4 of Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry contains 16 original papers presented during the Symposium and accepted after a standard peer review process of the Journal. 
The papers in the present volume concern review topics and new applications in geoarchaeology, chronological ranges of dating, dating of archaeological sites and artefacts, survey for new dosimetry and dating applications and authenticity testing of archaeological materials. 

Next L.A.I.S. will be hosted in Lisbon, Portugal in 2012.  New on L.A.I.S are uploaded at: http://kalamata.uop.gr/~lais2009/.

N. Zacharias,
President of the Organising Committee, Guest Editor

The motif in the centre of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor (ca. 2000-1900 BCE) concerns a star that fell to earth and caused the extinction of a population of giant serpents on an enchanted island, whose location is traditionally ascribed to the Red Sea. These creatures could apparently breathe fire, but they themselves were "burned utterly" in the fireball that followed the celestial body's impact with the earth. If the recently postulated Late Holocene meteorite impact (<5000 years ago) at Umm al Binni/al Amarah in southern Iraq is indeed the cause of a regional impact fallout layer dated to ca. 2350 BCE, then a folk memory of this event could be preserved in the Egyptian story; the proposed impact site and the story's likely setting both lie due east of Egypt, and oral reports of the loss of life wrought by the impact in Mesopotamia would soon have reached Egypt. A less likely candidate is the putative comet strike of ca. 2807 BCE that has been proposed to account for the undersea "Burckle crater" southeast of Madagascar. Both of these sites are as yet unproven as impact craters. A confirmed meteorite impact in southwestern Egypt <5000 years ago, which caused the Kamil crater, is another possible contributor to the fireball motif in the Tale. In light of modern theories that a meteorite, comet or asteroid impact caused the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event in which the non-avian dinosaurs were eliminated 66.5 million years ago, it is uncanny to find the destruction of a unique population of flightless, dragon-like giant reptiles attributed to just such a collision in this ancient narrative.

In this paper we explore Aboriginal oral traditions that relate to Australian meteorite craters. Using the literature, first-hand ethnographic records and fieldtrip data, we identify oral traditions and artworks associated with four impact sites: Gosses Bluff, Henbury, Liverpool and Wolfe Creek. Oral traditions describe impact origins for Gosses Bluff, Henbury and Wolfe Creek Craters, and non-impact origins for Liverpool Crater, with Henbury and Wolfe Creek stories having both impact and non-impact origins. Three impact sites that are believed to have been formed during human habitation of Australia. Dalgaranga, Veevers, and Boxhole do not have associated oral traditions that are reported in the literature.

El cráter de Monturaqui se ubica a 200 Km al ESE de la ciudad de Antofagasta (II Región) en la Precordillera cerca del borde Sur del Salar de Atacama a una altura aproximada de 3500 m.s.n.m. Sus coordenadas geográficas son 23º57' latitud Sur y 68º17' longitud W. El cráter fue descrito por primera vez como de un posible origen meteorítico por el geólogo Joaquín Sánchez (1962) y confirmado posteriormente por Sanchez y Cassidy (1). Las dimensiones del cráter son 360 m en sentido N-S y 380 m en sentido E-O, medidos en relación a la parte más alta del borde del cráter. El relieve ondulado del terreno hace que el borde Sur se encuentre 11 m más alto que el borde norte. La profundidad del cráter es de 31 m. Estas mediciones son el resultado de un levantamiento topográfico de detalle efectuado por Buchwald (2). El cráter se encuentra emplazado en un terreno formado por un granito de microclina del Paleozoico inferior (Ordovicico sup) con una edad Rb-Sr de 467 ± 50 ma. (Davidson et al, en Ramírez y Gardeweg, (3)). Este granito se encuentra cubierto por una ignimbrita (Ignimbrita Tucucaro) de edad Pliocena, con espesores variables de 0 a 6 m. en el sector del cráter (Fig. 1). La edad del cráter es incierta. Es más joven que el relieve formado por los cursos de quebradas secas las cuales interrumpe produciéndose en el cráter un relieve más joven invertido. La existencia de bordes redondeados por la erosión en contraste con las hombreras de cráteres más jóvenes como es el Meteor Crater en Arizona, muestra que su antigüedad es mayor. Una determinación de edad en granos de cuarzo por el método de termoluminicencia dio un valor mayor de 100.000 años, con un error apreciable (Buchwald, 2). Los materiales relacionados con el impacto consisten predominantemente en impactitas que se distribuyen en las inmediaciones del cráter y en menor cantidad, dentro de éste. Fragmentos de rocas graníticas con efectos cataclásticos se distribuyen de preferencia dentro del cráter, así como en escasos afloramientos. En una fecha no consignada, se construyó un pequeño pique y socavón, dentro del cráter, emplazado en rocas muy fracturadas, que corresponden a un granito cataclástico. Se han encontrado además, escasos fragmentos pequeños que corresponden a " iron shale ". A diferencia de otros cráteres de impacto, no se encuentran fragmentos del meteorito en él o alrededor del cráter. Solo se ha encontrado un fragmento metálico muy oxidado que ha permitido reconocer el meteorito _______________________________

Myths and legends are taught as an important component of cultural history and heritage, but are viewed by many as little more than fairy tales. Rife with supernatural deities, unphysical acts of strength and prowess, and fictional creatures, the very concept of examining them for scientific content is frowned upon, if not rejected outright. And with anti-science creationists pushing for teaching mythology-as-science, this is not unexpected. But researchers are finding out something oral cultures have always known - myths and legends (or to use the preferred term, 'oral traditions') contain information about nature, survival, cultural practices, and social structure for the peoples that developed them. This information actually does include a scientific component - explanations of the natural world that were used for navigation, calendars, food economics, and agricultural practices. The rising of the Pleiades at dawn may signal the arrival of winter. The behavior of some animals may predict the onset of bad weather. Certain plants may be used to treat ailments and disease. But these oral traditions can also contain information about past geological and astronomical events.

The Lairg Gravity Low may represent a buried impact crater ~40 km across that was the source of the 1.2 Ga Stac
Fada Member ejecta deposit but the gravity anomaly is too large to represent a simple crater and there is no
evidence of a central peak. Reanalysis of the point Bouguer gravity data reveals a ring of positive anomalies
around the central low, suggesting that it might represent the eroded central part of a larger complex crater. The
inner or peak rings of complex craters show a broadly consistent 2:1 relationship between ring diameter and total
crater diameter, implying that the putative Lairg crater may be as much as 100 km across. This would place the
crater rim within a few km of the Stac Fada Member outcrop, a location inconsistent with the thickness and clast
size of the ejecta deposit. We propose that the putative impact crater originally lay further east, substantially
further from the Stac Fada Member than today, and was translocated westwards to its present location beneath
Lairg during the Caledonian Orogeny. This model requires that a deep-seated thrust fault, analogous to the Flannan
and Outer Isles thrusts, exists beneath the Moine Thrust in north-central Scotland.

Terrestrial impact structures provide field evidence for cratering processes on planetary bodies that have an atmosphere and volatiles in the target rocks. Here we discuss two examples that may yield implications for Martian craters:
1. Recent field analysis of the Ries crater has revealed the existence of subhorizontal shear planes (detachments) in the periphery of the crater beneath the ejecta blanket at 0.9–1.8 crater radii distance. Their formation and associated radial outward shearing was caused by weak spallation and subsequent dragging during deposition of the ejecta curtain. Both processes are enhanced in rheologically layered targets and in the presence of fluids. Detachment faulting may also occur in the periphery of Martian impacts and could be responsible for the formation of lobe-parallel ridges and furrows in the inner layer of double-layer and multiple-layer ejecta craters.
2. The ejecta blanket of the Chicxulub crater was identified on the southeastern Yucatán Peninsula at distances of 3.0–5.0 crater radii from the impact center. Abundance of glide planes within the ejecta and particle abrasion both rise with crater distance, which implies a ground-hugging, erosive, and cohesive secondary ejecta flow. Systematic measurement of motion indicators revealed that the flow was deviated by a preexisting karst relief. In analogy with Martian fluidized ejecta blankets, it is suggested that the large runout was related to subsurface volatiles and the presence of basal glide planes, and was influenced by eroded bedrock lithologies. It is proposed that ramparts may result from enhanced shear localization and a stacking of ejecta material along internal glide planes at decreasing flow rates when the flow begins to freeze below a certain yield stress.

The Pelarda Formation (Fm.), located in the Iberian System in northeast Spain, is a sedimentary deposit with an extension of roughly 12 km x 2.5 km and an estimated thickness of no more than 400 m. The formation was first recognized as a peculiar unit in the early seventies and underwent interpretations like a fluvial or an alluvial fan deposit having a postulated age between Paleogene and Quaternary. Since the early nineties the Pelarda Formation has been considered an impact ejecta deposit originating from the large ca. 40 km-diameter Azuara impact structure and meanwhile being among the largest and most prominent terrestrial impact ejecta occurrences, which however is questioned by regional geologists still defending the fluvial and alluvial fan models. Roughly speaking, the Pelarda Fm. is a grossly unsorted, matrix-supported diamictite with grain sizes between silt fraction and meter-sized clasts and a big intercalated megablock. Strong clast deformations and abundant shock metamorphic effects like planar deformation features (PDF) are observed throughout the Pelarda F. deposit compatible with its impact ejecta origin. Aligned bigger clasts and smaller intercalated bands of sandstones, siltstones and clayey material indicate some local stratification obviously adjusted to flow processes within the impact ejecta curtain. This suggests that gravitational flows predominated in a transport by water in both liquid and gas states. Transport and deposition as a kind of pyroclastic surge are discussed. A sketch sequence describes the emplacement process of the Pelarda Fm. as 2 part of the Azuara crater formation and the integration in the general frame of pre-impact geology and some post-impact layering.

Arguing from a critical reading of the text, and scientific evidence on the ground, the authors show that the myth of Phaethon – the delinquent celestial charioteer – remembers the impact of a massive meteorite that hit the Chiemgau region in Bavaria between 2000 and 428 BC.

Visit the full web article via http://www.impact-structures.com/impact-educational/meteorite-impact-spallation-from-mega-to-micro-scale/ *******
Abstract.- Spallation, a well-known process in fracture mechanics, plays a major role in meteorite impact events and is evident on all scales from megascopic spall plates and with larger structural features, over mesoscopic dynamic deformations in particular of conglomeratic target deposits, down to microscopic shock spallation in mineral grains. Here I report on experimental spallation, on various geological implications of impact spallation and on mineralogical spallation evidence, with a special focus on the Spanish Azuara and Rubielos de la Cérida impact structures and the Ries impact crater in Germany.

Shock-induced fragmentation structures of basement rocks and their limestone cover in and around the Ries impact crater (Germany) were recorded on outcrop, sample and thin section scale and quantified mainly by fractal-geometry methods. Quantification was performed by automated procedures and in areas of square-centimetres to square-decametres with maximum resolution of micrometre scale. In 2D and on all scales, the fragmentation structures form complex, statistically self-similar patterns (fractals) with specific characteristics: (i) The pattern fractality is scale dependent. (ii) Three different power-law relationships exist, which reflect the effect of three fragmentation processes. (iii) The fracture patterns are anisotropic and inhomogeneous over larger areas. (iv) Complexity and anisotropy of the fracture patterns vary systematically. Such systematic variation appears typical for impact-related fragmentation.

Scientists have observed that the Himalayan range, which includes some of the highest mountains in the world, is covered in fossilised seashells, sea lilies, fish and other marine fossils. There can therefore be no doubt that it once formed part of the sea floor. They theorise that the adjacent sub-continent of India slowly pushed northwards and crumpled the sea floor up into this very high ridge over tens or hundreds of millions of years, though they concede that there are many problems with this scenario. An alternative view is that the Himalayas appeared, overnight, as a result of a meteorite impact.

An original Plasma Concept of the origin of simplest forms of living matter during the expansion of the plasma forming in the process of a hypervelocity meteorite impact onto the Earth surface is proposed. The concept uses the fact that meteorite bodies were the main contributors to the accumulation of the Earth mass. The feasibility of the concept is confirmed by the results of direct impact experiments and experiments with laser modeling of hypervelocity impact processes involving the generation of plasma identical to impact one. It is shown that during the adiabatic explosive expansion and cooling of the plasma the conditions form that ensure the possibility of stochastic synthesis of simplest and complex molecular structures including those with chirality. Constant unidirectional ring-shaped magnetic field is shown to form in the process of the impact plasma expansion, and that this field interacts with the UV radiation of the plasma to form local physical chiral medium causing moderate breaking of mirror symmetry of enantiomers synthesized in the plasma with the predominant formation of L amino acids and D sugars. At the final stage of this expansion the impact plasma reached both anomalously high catalytic activity and the peak rate of plasma processes, making possible the assembly and ordering of high-molecular structures that could contribute to achieving enantioenrichment or even enantiopurity with the growth of the characteristic size of the plasma region. The earlier proposed protoviroid-a hypothetical virus-like organism-is used as the model of the most primitive living being. The mass of the protoviroid, which consisted of 300 nucleotides and 100 amino acids, did not exceed 100 kDa. The estimates obtained showed that the crust-and meteorite-material plasma processed during the accumulation of the nominal Earth mass could ensure no less than 1047 statistical trials required for the synthesis of a "correct" sequence of a protoviroid monomers. It is also shown conclusively, based on experimental results, that abiogenous processes accompanying the expansion of meteorite plasma and crater formation satisfied all the requirements needed to ensure the emergence of a protoviroid and formation of a medium allowing the survival of the first living being in the geological history of the Earth.

In the last three decades cosmic events such as supernovae and the impact of large meteorites have undergone a remarkable renaissance in being considered as a trigger of radical change, not only in geological timescales but also among prehistoric cultures. In such theories, archaeological horizons indicative of destruction events are combined with evidence from dendrochronology, ice-core analysis, mythical traditions etc. and are put forward as evidence for cultural disasters caused by cosmic events. This  critically scrutinizes the underlying concepts of “cosmic catastrophe” and “cultural disaster” as well as the methods that are meant to corroborate them. Special emphasis is placed upon the limitations that show up in analyzing myth and folklore.

Our planet experiences falls of meteorites with different airburst and ground impact risk. Some of these meteors can survive after the atmospheric passage and fall into the ground. Although there are claims that people were hit and killed by meteorites in history, the historical records do not prove this fact so far. This issue might be due to the fact that either the manuscript was written in a language other than English or there is not enough interest in historical records. To the best of our knowledge, we show the first proof of an event ever that a meteorite hit and killed a man and left paralyzed another on August 22, 1888 in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, based on three manuscripts written in Ottoman Turkish that were extracted from the General Directorate of State Archives of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey. This event was also reported to Abdul Hamid II (34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire) by the governor of Sulaymaniyah. These findings suggest other historical records may still exist that describe other events that caused death and injuries by meteorites.

The paper concerning Tunguska meteorite (1908).
This paper describes results of 30 years of author's research concerning Tunguska impact (1908). The mechanism of Tunguska blast is determined as quick destruction of four main fragments of the comet in dense atmosphere. The structure of comet is determined, its substance and final size of each fragment. Detailed explanation of thermal damages due to explosion is described. More accurate coordinates of regions are obtained on the area of Tunguska site, where the most heavy sediments or fragments are possible to discover (meteorites). Quasi three-dimensional mathematical modeling of the impact was produced with the help of PIC-method (particle-in-cell method). It was shown that Tunguska-size comets are able to penetrate considerable deep into dense atmosphere due to decrease of drag effect. This decrease is explained by forward-directed jet from cavern of ice body, which located at the region of stagnation point. The author describes some stones which he found at the bottom of Khushmo River's shoal during 1988 expedition into the region of the Tunguska impact (1908). The idea is declared that main incoming of space substance to the Earth is provided by comets. Also the author declare that interstellar substance of Tunguska comet not considerably differ from terrestrial substance. This is explanation why scientists was not able to find substance of Tunguska comet during 100 years. The author suggests new vision of mechanism of initiation of life on planets after Tunguska similar impacts. This mechanism takes into consideration not only incoming cosmic organic substance but also information, which is connected to this substance. Mathematical metrics of atom of hydrogen is deduced which may be used for pattern recognition algorithm. In accordance to author's opinion, similar algorithm can promote evolution (transformation) of inert organic substance into living substance. There is additional information for emergency organizations for training of people against comets and asteroids danger, its mechanical, thermal and electromagnetic influence. (in Russian).

"Coalification defines the process in
which vegetable matter like wood and peat becomes con-
verted into coal of increasingly higher rank with anthra-
cite, and in some cases graphite, as the final product, and
that in geology leads to the formation of coal deposits.
Simulation of natural coalification has been performed
in the laboratory, and industrial coalification from biom-
ass within hours is known as hydrothermal carbonization.
Here, we present observations that suggest the possibility
of a much shorter coalification in a natural environment
by a kind of shock metamorphism in a meteorite impact
event. Shock metamorphism of organic matter has so far
been addressed only very subordinate."

Spallation is a well-known process in technical fracture mechanics. It describes strong tensile pulses, reflected from incident compression pulses at free surfaces, which can lead to decisive material damage due to the usually significantly lower tensile strength. In meteoric impacts with shock propagations, they play an important role in all dimensions, from mega to micro (Ernstson 2014). Early considerations led to the model of so-called spall plates (Melosh 1989), which describes near-surface platy rock bodies ejected at high speed during the formation of impact structures, a consequence of the spallation superposition of the propagating shock front with the rarefaction wave reflected at the free Earth surface. We describe known terrain observations (Ries impact event) of structurally very conspicuous impact layer deformations in Upper Jurassic limestones (Chao et al. 1978, Rutte 2003) , which so far cannot be explained geologically. GPR measurements show an extrapolation into the depth (8 m) and suggest that, based on the model of spall plates, shock spallation during the propagation of impact shock waves is the only reasonable explanation so far.-Very unusual GPR reflections are associated with a suggested impact airburst in Lower Bavaria. A 500 m x 50 m area of surficially melted granites shows narrow, circular curved, isolated reflection bands of high energy at apex depths down to a few meters. Conventional GPR interpretations and geologic considerations do not explain the observation. It is suggested that the GPR reflection traces an arcuate thin weak zone in the hard granite, caused by a rarefaction front of strong tensile stress propagating into the subsurface in response to an incident shock front. A specification of such a process in more detail is still pending, but shows how impressively GPR measurements can contribute to the clarification of near-surface impact processes (Poßekel & Ernstson 2019, Ernstson & Poßekel 2017). Plain Language Summary Spallation is a well-known process in technical fracture mechanics that describes the particularly destructive effect of dynamic tensile stresses as a result of reflected dynamic compressive stresses. In meteorite impacts, it is primarily reflected shock waves (rarefaction waves) that leave their mark in dimensions from mega to micro. We describe the investigation of quite unusual and so far geologically not understood layer deformations with geophysical ground penetrating radar (GPR) measurements and consider impact shock spallation as causal force.

The size or energy of diverse structures or phenomena in geoscience appears to follow power law distributions. A rigorous statistical analysis of such observations is tricky, though. Observables can span several orders of magnitude, but the range for which the power law may be valid is typically truncated, usually because the smallest events are too tiny to be detected and the largest ones are limited by the system size. We revisit several examples of proposed power law distributions dealing with potentially damaging natural phenomena. Adequate fits of the distributions of sizes are especially important in these cases, given that they may be used to assess long-term hazard. After reviewing the theoretical background for power law distributions, we improve an objective statistical fitting method and apply it to diverse data sets. The method is described in full detail, and it is easy to implement. Our analysis elucidates the range of validity of the power law fit and the corresponding exponent and whether a power law tail is improved by a truncated lognormal. We confirm that impact fireballs and Californian earthquakes show untruncated power law behavior, whereas global earthquakes follow a double power law. Rain precipitation over space and time and tropical cyclones show a truncated power law regime. Karst sinkholes and wildfires, in contrast, are better described by truncated lognormals, although wildfires also may show power law regimes. Our conclusions only apply to the analyzed data sets but show the potential of applying this robust statistical technique in the future.

ABSTRACT In the El Mulato section (NE Mexico), the Upper Cretaceous marly Méndez and the Lower Palaeogene marly Velasco Formations are separated by a clastic unit. Benthic foraminifera from both marly formations indicate lower bathyal depths. The clastic unit, in contrast, contains platform sands, muddy pebbles and neritic (shallow) faunas mixed with microspherules, indicating that it was allochthonously deposited into the deep basin. The diversity and the variability in origin of the components in the clastic unit, and its sedimentological features, support a model of deposition by turbidity currents related to mass-wasting processes triggered by the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary impact. Planktic foraminifera were affected by a catastrophic extinction at the K/T boundary, whereas benthic foraminifera show reorganization of the community structure rather than significant extinction. The benthic faunal turnover may have resulted from the drop in primary productivity after the asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous.

In this article the idea of superconductivity in meteorites is declared for the first time. A new electro-magnetic mechanism of destruction of the most dangerous metal asteroidal bodies is described. It is shown that the nucleus of a long-period comet can include fragments with ultra low temperatures. Such fragments are able to be in a superconducting state. The presence of cometary ice and superconductivity of a meteor body is accepted in order to explain a powerful explosion during the Tunguska event in 1908. The accumulation of electrical energy in a meteoroid-superconductor is described during its motion with a cosmic speed across the magnetic field of the Earth. The influence of Joule heating is taken into consideration. The interaction between the magnetic field of a meteoroid-superconductor and surrounding plasma is described from the point of view of the magnetohydrodynamics theory (translation from Russian into English).