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Project Progress

We determined the distribution of impact-generated wildfires for the Chicxulub impact event and illustrated how impact parameters (e.g., trajectory) can influence the distribution of wildfires.

D.A. Kring and D.D. Durda, “Trajectories and distribution of material ejected from the Chicxulub impact crater: Implications for post-impact wildfires,” J. Geophys. Res. 107(E8), pp. 6-1 through 6-22, 10.1029/2001JE001532, 2002.

In an invited review paper, we outlined the environmental and biologic effects of large impact events, like Chicxulub, throughout Earth history.

D.A. Kring, “Environmental consequences of impact cratering events as a function of ambient conditions on Earth,” Astrobiology 3(1), 133-152, 2003.

We continued to analyze lunar impact melts, to determine the flux of impact cratering events in the Earth-Moon system, particularly in the first billion years of Earth’s history.

I.J. Daubar, D.A. Kring, T.D. Swindle, and A.J.T. Jull, “Northwest Africa 482: A crystalline impact melt breccia from the lunar highlands,” Meteoritics Planet. Sci. 37, 1797-1813, 2002.

B.A. Cohen, T.D. Swindle, and D.A. Kring, “Geochemistry and Ar_40_Ar_39 geochronology of impact melt clasts in lunar highlands meteorites: Implications for lunar bombardment history,” Meteoritics Planet. Sci., submitted 5/2002.

In an invited review paper, we also explored the delivery of Earth’s water, a key ingredient for life, through impact events.

H. Campins, T.D. Swindle, and D.A. Kring, “Evaluating comets as a source of Earth’s water,” in Origin, Evolution, and Biodiversity of Microbial Life in the Universe, J. Seckbach (ed.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, in press, 5/2003.

We initiated our final year’s study of impact-generated hydrothermal systems, which may have been a particularly important habitat for the early evolution of life on Earth.

O. Abramov and D.A. Kring, “Finite-difference modeling of impact-induced hydrothermal systems (extended abstract),” Lunar and Planetary Science XXXIV, Abstract #1846, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston (CD-ROM), 2003.

D.A. Kring, “Potential habitats in impact-generated hydrothermal systems,” Goldschmidt Conference, invited for fall 2003 meeting in Japan, submitted 5/2003.