Impacts and the Early Earth

1. Front Matter

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2. Exobiology: Laboratory tests of the impact related aspects of Panspermia

   • M. J. Burchell, N. R. G. Shrine, A. Bunch, J. C. Zarnecki

   Pages 1-26

3. Macromolecular organic materials in carbonaceous chondrites: A review of their sources and their role in the origin of life on the early earth

   • Mark Sephton, Iain Gilmour

   Pages 27-49

4. Effects of atmospheric heating on infalling meteorites and micrometeorites: Relevance to conditions on the early earth

   • I. P. Wright, P. D. Yates, C. T. Pillinger

   Pages 51-72

5. Search for petrographic and geochemical evidence for the late heavy bombardment on earth in early archean rocks from Isua, Greenland

   • Christian Koeberl, Wolf Uwe Reimold, Iain McDonald, Minik Rosing

   Pages 73-97

6. The oldest impact deposits on earth — First confirmation of an extraterrestrial component

   • Alexander Shukolyukov, Frank T. Kyte, Günter W. Lugmair, Donald R. Lowe, Gary R. Byerly

   Pages 99-115

7. Early archean spherule beds in the Barberton mountain land, South Africa: Impact or terrestrial origin?

   • Wolf Uwe Reimold, Christian Koeberl, Steven Johnson, Iain McDonald

   Pages 117-180

8. Particles in late archean carawine dolomite (Western Australia) resemble muong nong-type tektites

   • Bruce M. Simonson, Miriam Hornstein, Scott Hassler

   Pages 181-213

9. Fossil micrometeorites from Finland — Basic features, scientific potential, and characteristics of the mesoproterozoic host rocks

   • Dirk Kettrup, Alexander Deutsch, Pekka Pihlaja, Lauri J. Pesonen

   Pages 215-227

10. Impact diamonds as indicators of shock metamorphism in strongly-reworked Pre-Cambrian impactites

    • S. Vishnevsky, J. Raitala

    Pages 229-247

11. Deeply exhumed impact structures: A case study of the Vredefort structure, South Africa

    • R. L. Gibson, W. U. Reimold

    Pages 249-277

12. Identification of ancient impact structures: Low-angle faults and related geological features of crater basements

    • T. Kenkmann, B. A. Ivanov, D. Stöffler

    Pages 279-307

13. Basic remote sensing signatures of large, deeply eroded impact structures

    • Andreas Abels, Heiko Zumsprekel, Lutz Bischoff

    Pages 309-326

14. The terrestrial cratering rate over the last 125 million years

    • David W. Hughes

    Pages 327-341

15. Impact melting of carbonates from the Chicxulub crater

    • A. P. Jones, P. Claeys, S. Heuschkel

    Pages 343-361

16. The Gallejaur structure, Northern Sweden

    • Robert Lilljequist

    Pages 363-387

17. Neugrund structure — the newly discovered submarine early Cambrian impact crater

    • Kalle Suuroja, Sten Suuroja

    Pages 389-416

18. Impact-induced replacement of plagioclase by K-feldspar in granitoids and amphibolites at the Kärdla Crater, Estonia

    • V. Puura, A. Kärki, J. Kirs, K. Kirsimäe, A. Kleesment, M. Konsa et al.

    Pages 417-445

Only 10% of the 150 or so known impact craters on Earth date from the early Precambrian Era, a time period covering some 88% of the Earth's history. Yet this Era encompasses fundamental events in the origin and evolution of our planet from the origin of life itself to the development of continents. The papers in this volume were presented at a workshop sponsored by the European Science Foundation Scientific Network on Impact cratering held in Cambridge, UK, in December 1998. The papers outline the present state of scientific understanding of the role impacts may have played in the biological and geological evolution of the Early Earth.

• early earth
• evolution
• impact craters
• marine
• origin of life
• petrography
• remote sensing

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