Impact crater development on every planetary body requires catastrophic movement of large volumes... more Impact crater development on every planetary body requires catastrophic movement of large volumes of crustal rocks. The process produces well-known features such as brecciation and frictional melting, but a mechanism that explains how rocks accommodate the strain during the cratering flow remains unclear. Here, we investigate target rocks from the Araguainha impact crater (central Brazil) that typify what happens to a consolidated, fluid-saturated sedimentary rock at ∼2 km below the surface prior to the impact event. Sandstone units record a pattern of chaotic large-scale folds and pervasive microscopic (grain-to-grain) brecciation that result from rock strength degradation triggered by the impact. Field mapping and extensive textural observations indicate that these sandstones experienced initial microstructural damage from the shock wave and that this process may have weakened grainto-grain bonds and started the process of pervasive microbrecciation. Accompanying heating and decompression lead to vaporization and expansion of fluids in the sandstone pores, magnifying the process of brecciation by effectively liquefying the rock mass and allowing for chaotic folding (at a range of scales up to blocks 100 m in length) in the central uplift. This is a vaporization-assisted microbrecciation, and it may have inhibited the formation of pseudotachylites, because energy was dissipated by pervasive microcracking, vaporization of pore fluids, and large scale chaotic folding, rather than localized displacement on brittle faults and frictional heating. We suggest that impact liquefaction of sedimentary rocks depends on whether the presence of pore-fluids and related micro-brecciation are sufficient to dissipate most of the impact energy. (C. Lana). violent acoustic vibrations could temporarily reduce the internal frictional strength of the rocks, allowing them to behave like fluids . This model is convenient because liquefied debris has an effective viscosity sufficiently low to permit collapse within the required time-scale. Other physical models propose that rocks lose internal cohesion through thermal softening due to extreme temperatures released upon impact , but direct evidence for these theoretical models have not been fully documented in nature. While there are many studies of the characteristic effects of shock deformation on target rocks, the phenomenon that causes loss of cohesion in target rocks around large impact structures has not been fully documented. Here we show that the structural integrity of fluidsaturated sedimentary rocks is destroyed at grain scale by shock damage and pore-fluid expansion during the impact.
The Quadrilatero Ferrífero is a metallogenic district (Au, Fe, Mn) located at the southernmost en... more The Quadrilatero Ferrífero is a metallogenic district (Au, Fe, Mn) located at the southernmost end of the Sao Francisco craton in eastern Brazil. In this region, a supracrustal assemblage composed of Archean greenstone and overlying NeoarcheanePaleoproterozoic sedimentary rocks occur in elongated keels bordering domal bodies of Archean gneisses and granites. The tectonomagmatic evolution of the Quadril atero Ferrífero began in the Paleoarchean with the formation of continental crust between 3500 and 3200 Ma. Although this crust is today poorly preserved, its existence is attested to by the occurrence of detrital zircon crystals with Paleoarchean age in the supracrustal rocks. Most of the crystalline basement, which is composed of banded gneisses intruded by leucogranitic dikes and weakly foliated granites, formed during three major magmatic events: Rio das Velhas I (2920e2850 Ma), Rio das Velhas II (2800e2760 Ma) and Mamona (2760e2680 Ma). The Rio das Velhas II and Mamona events represent a subduction-collision cycle, probably marking the appearance of a modern-style plate tectonic regime in the Quadril atero Ferrífero. Granitic rocks emplaced during the Rio das Velhas I and II events formed by mixing between a magma generated by partial melting of metamafic rocks with an end member derived by recycling gneissic rocks of older continental crust. After deformation and regional metamorphism at ca. 2770 Ma, a change in the composition of the granitic magmas occurred and large volumes of high-K granitoids were generated. The ca. 6000 m-thick Minas Supergroup tracks the opening and closure of a basin during the Neo-archeanePaleoproterozoic, between 2600 and 2000 Ma. The basal sequence involves continental to marine sediments deposited in a passive margin basin and contain as a marker bed the Lake Superior-type Cau^ e Banded Iron Formation. The overlying sediments of the Sabar a Group mark the inversion of the basin during the Rhyacian Minas accretionary orogeny. This orogeny results from the collision between the nuclei of the present-day S~ ao Francisco and Congo cratons, generated the fold-and thrust belt structure of the Quadril atero Ferrífero. Afterwards, the post-orogenic collapse resulted in the deposition of the Itacolomi Group and in the genesis of the dome-and-keel structure. In this paper, we review current knowledge about the 1500 Ma long-lasting tectonomagmatic and structural evolution of the Quadril atero Ferrífero identifying the most compelling open questions and future challenges.
Impact crater development on every planetary body requires catastrophic movement of large volumes... more Impact crater development on every planetary body requires catastrophic movement of large volumes of crustal rocks. The process produces well-known features such as brecciation and frictional melting, but a mechanism that explains how rocks accommodate the strain during the cratering flow remains unclear. Here, we investigate target rocks from the Araguainha impact crater (central Brazil) that typify what happens to a consolidated, fluid-saturated sedimentary rock at ∼2 km below the surface prior to the impact event. Sandstone units record a pattern of chaotic large-scale folds and pervasive microscopic (grain-to-grain) brecciation that result from rock strength degradation triggered by the impact. Field mapping and extensive textural observations indicate that these sandstones experienced initial microstructural damage from the shock wave and that this process may have weakened grainto-grain bonds and started the process of pervasive microbrecciation. Accompanying heating and decompression lead to vaporization and expansion of fluids in the sandstone pores, magnifying the process of brecciation by effectively liquefying the rock mass and allowing for chaotic folding (at a range of scales up to blocks 100 m in length) in the central uplift. This is a vaporization-assisted microbrecciation, and it may have inhibited the formation of pseudotachylites, because energy was dissipated by pervasive microcracking, vaporization of pore fluids, and large scale chaotic folding, rather than localized displacement on brittle faults and frictional heating. We suggest that impact liquefaction of sedimentary rocks depends on whether the presence of pore-fluids and related micro-brecciation are sufficient to dissipate most of the impact energy. (C. Lana). violent acoustic vibrations could temporarily reduce the internal frictional strength of the rocks, allowing them to behave like fluids . This model is convenient because liquefied debris has an effective viscosity sufficiently low to permit collapse within the required time-scale. Other physical models propose that rocks lose internal cohesion through thermal softening due to extreme temperatures released upon impact , but direct evidence for these theoretical models have not been fully documented in nature. While there are many studies of the characteristic effects of shock deformation on target rocks, the phenomenon that causes loss of cohesion in target rocks around large impact structures has not been fully documented. Here we show that the structural integrity of fluidsaturated sedimentary rocks is destroyed at grain scale by shock damage and pore-fluid expansion during the impact.
The Quadrilatero Ferrífero is a metallogenic district (Au, Fe, Mn) located at the southernmost en... more The Quadrilatero Ferrífero is a metallogenic district (Au, Fe, Mn) located at the southernmost end of the Sao Francisco craton in eastern Brazil. In this region, a supracrustal assemblage composed of Archean greenstone and overlying NeoarcheanePaleoproterozoic sedimentary rocks occur in elongated keels bordering domal bodies of Archean gneisses and granites. The tectonomagmatic evolution of the Quadril atero Ferrífero began in the Paleoarchean with the formation of continental crust between 3500 and 3200 Ma. Although this crust is today poorly preserved, its existence is attested to by the occurrence of detrital zircon crystals with Paleoarchean age in the supracrustal rocks. Most of the crystalline basement, which is composed of banded gneisses intruded by leucogranitic dikes and weakly foliated granites, formed during three major magmatic events: Rio das Velhas I (2920e2850 Ma), Rio das Velhas II (2800e2760 Ma) and Mamona (2760e2680 Ma). The Rio das Velhas II and Mamona events represent a subduction-collision cycle, probably marking the appearance of a modern-style plate tectonic regime in the Quadril atero Ferrífero. Granitic rocks emplaced during the Rio das Velhas I and II events formed by mixing between a magma generated by partial melting of metamafic rocks with an end member derived by recycling gneissic rocks of older continental crust. After deformation and regional metamorphism at ca. 2770 Ma, a change in the composition of the granitic magmas occurred and large volumes of high-K granitoids were generated. The ca. 6000 m-thick Minas Supergroup tracks the opening and closure of a basin during the Neo-archeanePaleoproterozoic, between 2600 and 2000 Ma. The basal sequence involves continental to marine sediments deposited in a passive margin basin and contain as a marker bed the Lake Superior-type Cau^ e Banded Iron Formation. The overlying sediments of the Sabar a Group mark the inversion of the basin during the Rhyacian Minas accretionary orogeny. This orogeny results from the collision between the nuclei of the present-day S~ ao Francisco and Congo cratons, generated the fold-and thrust belt structure of the Quadril atero Ferrífero. Afterwards, the post-orogenic collapse resulted in the deposition of the Itacolomi Group and in the genesis of the dome-and-keel structure. In this paper, we review current knowledge about the 1500 Ma long-lasting tectonomagmatic and structural evolution of the Quadril atero Ferrífero identifying the most compelling open questions and future challenges.
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Papers by J.P. Hippertt