Detection and identification of traces of impacted projectile in terrestrial and extraterrestrial materials using relevant trace element abundances and isotope ratios (FWOTM584)

The Solar System is a violent environment, collisions between planetary bodies common. Understanding the collision dynamics between bodies various in size and composition documents the origin and evolution of the Solar System. Minute chemical contaminations in melted material from terrestrial or lunar impact craters characterize the type of meteorite that impacted these bodies. Similarly, this contamination preserved in small melted phases within meteorites should shed light on the collisions that occurred between their parent bodies in the asteroid belt. Our research group is at the forefront of developing analytical methodologies to identify precisely the types of meteorites that formed impact craters on Earth. The challenge is now to establish high-precision analytical techniques for smaller samples and apply them to the meteorites and micrometeorites that we are recovering from the surroundings of the Princess Elisabeth station in Antarctica. This approach will lead to a better understanding of the origin of micrometeorites, which form the largest part of the extraterrestrial flux to Earth. Geochemical characterization of the full spectrum of extraterrestrial materials (micrometeorites - meteorites - impact crater melt and ejecta) will depict the dynamics of the Solar System and the evolution of planetary bodies.

Keywords:Impact crater, Asteroids, Meteorite, Isotope analysis, Platinum group element, Geology, Comets

Disciplines:Environmental science and management, Theory and methodology of archaeology, Oceanography, Evolutionary biology, Geology, Physical geography and environmental geoscience