Impact Tectonics Google Earth ver. 0110

A set of line shapes generated using geographic information systems that are imported into Google Earth (GE) and combined with GE paths, to show hypothetical crustal strains stemming from known and suspected, hypervelocity, large-bolide impacts on Earth.

Download Google Earth ImpactTectonics v. 1109.kmz file (835 KB) .

The data files listed below are combined into a Google Earth KMZ application to show spatial relationships between two known and six suspected bolide-impact events on Earth and associated, hypothetical, far-field crustal strains. These strains include regional, circumferential crustal welts and seismic zones, foreland fracturing and thrust-faulting ,and hinterland extensional fracturing and faulting around each impact crater. Crustal strains are systematically distributed about each impact crater, with primary compression paths for each event shown as lines extending from the center of each crater into the foreland regions along paths that parallel the descent trajectories of each oblique impact. Impact strains are portrayed as perturbing, and possibly driving tectonic-plates motion. For further explanation of each event and associated crustal and mantle strains please see Far-field bolide-impact strains on Earth.
ImpactTectonics Google Earth v.1109
Three views of Earth showing hypothetical far-field impact strains with respect to two known and five suspected
impact events. Far-field strains include impact-generated crustal welts and troughs that are circumferential to
impact craters, and crustal fractures and faults possibly stemming from impact stresses. Also shown are plate-motion
vectors generated  using 13 years of GPS-based plate-motion data and lines drawn parallel to bolide-decent paths
from the impact point towards foreland-directed strains. Also shown are grayshade sea-floor physiography and
continental crustal ages, color-coded by geologic Era.

Line shapes included in the KMZ file:

ESRI World rivers - Major rivers from ESRI.

UT Tectonic-plate boundaries - Line shapes of tectonic-plate boundaries from the University of Texas PLATES project. These include traces of transform faults, sea-floor-spreading ridges, and subduction trenches.

Tectonic-plate-motion vectors  - NASA JPL horizontal component of tectonic-plate motion extracted from global, ground-based GPS stations. Line vectors were generated using an ESRI ArcView extension to produce magnitude-weighted vectors of the horizontal component of plate motion including azimuth direction and velocity (mm/yr). Vector sizing is based on multiplying horizontal velocities by 0.1 degree for display in geographic space.

Folder  Earth impact craters - 174 known and 11 suspected impact craters.

1) The known craters are cataloged by PASSC. Listed crater locations and sizes were used to generate circular buffers around impact points using crater center ponts and radii. Please note that craters appear elliptical at higher latitudes due to the lateral stretching of geographic space. Features attributes are modified from the PASSC database for display in Google Earth.

2) Eleven suspected impact craters at 6 large-impact sites. Some sites have multiple impacts. Circular polygons were generated of crater diamater in 2D Lambert equal area azimuthal space , then projected into geographic space. Each site is named and includes an estimated age of each event based on ocean drilling records (DSDP and ODP), the age of nearby strata, nearby volcanic activity, and other available evidence. 

Folder Impact lines, paths, and rings
1) 2D horizontal line traces of sea-floor fractures and other crustal disconinuities stemming from or modified by impact-related stresses,
2) primary structural axes from oblique impact trajectories with lines drawn parallel to the horizontal component of the bolide flight direction, bisecting the primary compressional field for brittle crsutla strains amanating into the cratered foreland. , and
3) circumferential rings generated around each crater using ~660, ~1700 and ~2900 km radii.  2D polyline circles tracing circumferential arches, troughs and seismic zones that define impact-generated crustal welts and far-field body strains. These were generated as crater-centered buffers in map views using Lambert Equal Area Azimuthal projections centered on crater (s), then projected into geographic space.

!! Warning. This KMZ application can crash a computer with less than 1 GB RAM. Be careful not to have all layers active at once if you have less than 1 GB RAM.

www.impacttectonics.org 02202010