Life after shock: the mission from Mars to Earth

Extract from introduction: The minerals of the Martian meteorites collected so far indicate an exposure to shock waves in the pressure range of 5 to 55 GPa [1]. As terrestrial rocks are frequently inhabited by microbial communities, rocks ejected from a planet by impact processes may carry with them endolithic microorganisms, if microbial life existed/exists on this planet

Impact experiments in support of “Lithopanspermia”: The route from Mars to Earth

Shock recovery experiments on a Martian analogue rock (gabbro) loaded with three types of microorganisms reveal that these organisms survive the impact and ejection phase on Mars at shock pressures up to about 50 GPa with exponentially decreasing survival rates

D/H and water sources in Tissint

No abstract available

Mid-sized complex crater formation in mixed crystalline-sedimentary targets: Insight from modeling and observation

Large impact crater formation is an important geologic process that is not fully understood. The current paradigm for impact crater formation is based on models and observations of impacts in homogeneous targets. Real targets are rarely uniform; for example, the majority of Earths surface is covered by sedimentary rocks and/or a water layer. The ubiquity of layering across solar system bodies makes it important to understand the effect target properties have on the cratering process. To advance understanding of the mechanics of crater collapse, and the effect of variations in target properties on crater formation, the first Bridging the Gap workshop recommended that geological observation and numerical modeling focussed on mid-sized (15-30 km diameter) craters on Earth. These are large enough to be complex; small enough to be mapped, surveyed and modelled at high resolution; and numerous enough for the effects of target properties to be potentially disentangled from the effects of other variables. In this paper, we compare observations and numerical models of three 18-26 km diameter craters formed in different target lithology: Ries, Germany; Haughton, Canada; and El'gygytgyn, Russia. Based on the first-order assumption that the impact energy was the same in all three impacts we performed numerical simulations of each crater to construct a simple quantitative model for mid-sized complex crater formation in a subaerial, mixed crystalline-sedimentary target. We compared our results with interpreted geological profiles of Ries and Haughton, based on detailed new and published geological mapping and published geophysical surveys. Our combined observational and numerical modeling work suggests that the major structural differences between each crater can be explained by the difference in thickness of the pre-impact sedimentary cover in each case. We conclude that the presence of an inner ring at Ries, and not at Haughton, is because basement rocks that are stronger than the overlying sediments are sufficiently close to the surface that they are uplifted and overturned during excavation and remain as an uplifted ring after modification and post-impact erosion. For constant impact energy, transient and final crater diameters increase with increasing sediment thickness.The Meteoritics & Planetary Science archives are made available by the Meteoritical Society and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform February 202

A petrological, mineralogical and chemical analysis of the lunar mare basalt meteorites LaPaz Icefield 02205, 02224 and 02226

LaPaz Icefield (LAP) 02205, 02226, and 02224 are paired stones of a crystalline basaltic lunar meteorite with a low-Ti (3.21–3.43% TiO2) low-Al (9.93–10.45% Al2O3), and low-K (0.11–0.12% K2O) composition. They consist mainly of zoned pyroxene and plagioclase grains, with minor ilmenite, spinel, and mesostasis regions. Large, possibly xenocrystic, forsteritic olivine grains (<3% by mode) contain small trapped multiphase melt inclusions. Accessory mineral and mesostasis composition shows that the samples have experienced residual melt crystallization with silica oversaturation and late-stage liquid immiscibility. Our section of LAP 02224 has a vesicular fusion crust, implying that it was at one time located sufficiently close to the lunar surface environment to have accumulated solar-wind-implanted gases. The stones have a comparable major element composition and petrography to low-Ti, low-Al basalts collected at the Apollos 12 and 15 landing sites. However, the LAP stones also have an enriched REE bulk composition and are more ferroan (Mg numbers in the range of 31 to 35) than similar Apollo samples, suggesting that they represent members of a previously unsampled fractionated mare basalt suite that crystallized from a relatively evolved lunar melt

The shock compression of microorganism-loaded broths and emulsions: Experiments and simulations

By carefully selecting flyer plate thickness and the geometry of a target capsule for bacterial broths and emulsions, we have successfully subjected the contents of the capsule to simultaneous shock and dynamic compression when subjected to a flyer-plate impact experiment. The capsules were designed to be recovered intact so that post experimental analysis could be done on the contents. ANSYS® AUTODYN hydrocode simulations were carried out to interrogate the deformation of the cover plate and the wave propagation in the fluid. Accordingly, we have shown that microorganisms such as Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis and Zygosaccharomyces bailii are not affected by this type of loading regime. However, by introducing a cavity behind the broth we were able to observe limited kill in the yeast sample. Further, on using this latter technique with emulsions it was shown that greater emulsification of an oil-based emulsion occurred due to the cavitation that was introduced