Geocheminar winter-2019

Meteorite impacts are the most common geological process in the solar system. Impacts modify and bring subsurface lithologies to the surface, where they can be studied through remote sensing and in situ measurements. However, questions remain as to how the compositions observed within impact structures represent subsurface crustal materials. Impact melt is an important product of meteorite impacts and forms through melting of target rocks during hypervelocity impacts, often containing blocks and clasts of variably shocked country rock. The melt rocks contain heterogeneities at a scale that cannot be sampled through standard geological field and laboratory methods. We use a novel technique, imaging spectroscopy in the field, to measure and sample compositions of entire outcrops of impact melt at the Haughton impact structure in the Canadian High Arctic. By comparing compositions from outcrop to outcrop, we assess the heterogeneity of impact melt in relation to the original target stratigraphy. I will discuss the implications for our understanding of how impact melt forms and for remote compositional analyses of other bodies in the solar system.