We report results of an interdisciplinary project devoted to the 26 km‐diameter Ries crater
and to the genesis of suevite. Recent laboratory analyses of “crater suevite” occurring within …

This chapter is dedicated to H. Jay Melosh who tragically passed away during this endeavor.
From his earliest publications on the concept of acoustic fluidization, to the publication of his …

Over the past couple of decades, it is has become widely recognized that impact cratering is
a ubiquitous geological process that affects all planetary objects with a solid surface. Indeed …

The history of the Hadean Earth (∼ 4.0–4.5 billion years ago) is poorly understood because
few known rocks are older than∼ 3.8 billion years old. The main constraints from this era …

Large impacts provide a mechanism for resurfacing planets through mixing near-surface
rocks with deeper material. Central peaks are formed from the dynamic uplift of rocks during …

Chondrules are the millimetre-scale, previously molten, spherules found in most meteorites.
Before chondrules formed, large differentiating planetesimals had already accreted. Volatile …

The environmental severity of large impacts on Earth is influenced by their impact trajectory.
Impact direction and angle to the target plane affect the volume and depth of origin of …

High-resolution gravity data from the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory spacecraft
have clarified the origin of lunar mass concentrations (mascons). Free-air gravity anomalies …

We describe improvements to the ɛ-α porous compaction model for simulating solar system
impacts. To improve the treatment of highly porous materials, we modified the ɛ-α model to …

Prior to becoming chondritic meteorites, primordial solids were a poorly consolidated mix of
mm-scale igneous inclusions (chondrules) and high-porosity sub-μm dust (matrix). We used …