Abstract
Impactites generally consist of target rocks subjected to a shock wave
during an impact event, but theoretically can be composed of surficial
materials such as soil or other unconsolidated surface materials. Frothy
samples found in the impact melt-bearing breccia circum Lonar crater,
India have a significantly lower density than shocked bedrock basalts.
Analyses of petrographic and back-scattered electron images, along with
mineralogical and geochemical comparisons between the target basalts and
local Deccan soils suggest that these are shocked soils that were
compressed and lithified during the impact event. Hyperspectral images
reveal both unshocked and shocked silicates and glasses along with
organics on a scale of millimeters. Shocked soils/regolith could hold
tremendous value as recorders of ancient
lithosphere-hydrosphere-atmosphere reactions on this planet as well as
Mars.