Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Dynamic fracture by large extraterrestrial impacts as the origin of shatter cones

Nature volume 418, pages 310–313 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

A large impact by a comet or meteorite releases an enormous amount of energy, which evaporates, melts and fractures the surrounding rocks1,2,3,4. Distinctive features of such impacts are ‘shatter cones’, deformed rocks characterized by hierarchical striated features5,6. Although such features have been used for decades as unequivocal fingerprints of large-body impacts, the process by which shatter cones form has remained enigmatic. Here we show that the distinctive shatter-cone striations naturally result from nonlinear waves (front waves) that propagate along a fracture front7,8,9,10. This explains the observed systematic increase of striation angles with the distance from the impact. Shatter-cone networks, typically spanning many scales, can be understood as hierarchical bifurcations of the fracture front, which is generated by the immense energy flux carried by the initial, impact-generated, shock waves. Our quantitative predictions based on this theory are supported by field measurements at the Kentland and Vredefort impact sites. These measurements indicate that shatter cones near to the impact site were formed by fractures propagating at nearly the Rayleigh wave speed of the host rocks, whereas the furthest shatter cones observed (about 40 km from the impact site) were formed by fronts moving more slowly. These results provide insight into impact dynamics as well as dissipative mechanisms in solids subjected to sudden, extremely intense fluxes of energy.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The structure of shatter cones.
Figure 2: Shatter cones as branched fractures.
Figure 3: Fracture front waves, FWs, are generated by the interaction of a dynamic fracture front with a localized inhomogeneity.
Figure 4: Shatter-cone measurements at the Vredefort impact site.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Melosh, H. J. Impact ejection, spallation, and the origin of meteorites. Icarus 59, 234–260 (1984)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Melosh, H. J. Impact Cratering: A Geologic Process (Oxford Univ. Press, New York, 1989)

    Google Scholar 

  3. French, B. M. Traces of Catastrophe. Handbook of Shock-metamorphic Effects in Terrestrial Meteorite Impact Structures (Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, 1998)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Turtle, E. P. & Pierazzo, E. Constraints on the size of the Vredefort impact crater from numerical modeling. Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 33, 483–490 (1998)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Dietz, R. S. in Shock Metamorphism of Natural Materials (eds French, B. M. & Short, N. M.) 267–285 (Mono Book Corp., Baltimore, 1969)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Sharpton, V. L., Dressler, B. O., Herrick, R. R., Schnieders, B. & Scott, J. New constraints on the Slate Islands impact structure, Ontario, Canada. Geology 24, 851–854 (1996)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Morrissey, J. W. & Rice, J. R. Crack front waves. J. Mech. Phys. Solids 46, 467–487 (1998)

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Morrissey, J. W. & Rice, J. R. Perturbative simulations of crack front waves. J. Mech. Phys. Solids 48, 1229–1251 (2000)

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. Ramanathan, S. & Fisher, D. S. Dynamics and instabilities of planar tensile cracks in heterogeneous media. Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 877–880 (1997)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Sharon, E., Cohen, G. & Fineberg, J. Propagating solitary waves along a rapidly moving crack front. Nature 410, 68–71 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Milton, D. J. in Impact and Explosion Cratering; Planetary and Terrestrial Implications (eds Roddy, D. J., Pepin, R. O. & Merrill, R. B.) 703–714 (Pergamon, New York, 1977)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Roy, D. W. Shatter cone geometry and description procedure. Tectonophysics 60, T37–T42 (1979)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Albat, H. M. & Mayer, J. J. Megascopic planar shock fractures in the Vredefort Structure; a potential time marker? Tectonophysics 162, 265–276 (1989)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Nicolaysen, L. O. & Reimold, W. U. Vredefort shatter cones revisited. J. Geophys. Res. B 104, 4911–4930 (1999)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Johnson, G. P. & Talbot, R. J. A Theoretical Study of the Shock Wave Origin of Shatter Cones Thesis (Air Force Inst. Technol., Wright-Patterson Air Force Base)

  16. Gash, P. J. S. Dynamic mechanism for the formation of shatter cones. Nature 230, 32–35 (1971)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Shibuya, T. & Nakahara, I. The semi-infinite body subjected to a concentrated impact load on the surface. Bull. Jpn Soc. Mech. Eng. 11, 983–992 (1968)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Asphaug, E. et al. Mechanical and geological effects of impact cratering on Ida. Icarus 120, 158–184 (1996)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Camacho, G. T. & Ortiz, M. Computational modelling of impact damage in brittle materials. Int. J. Solids Struct. 33, 2899–2938 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Melosh, H. J., Ryan, E. V. & Asphaug, E. Dynamic fragmentation in impacts — Hydrocode simulation of laboratory impacts. J. Geophys. Res. E 97, 14735–14759 (1992)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Field, J. E. Brittle fracture: its study and application. Contemp. Phys. 12, 1–31 (1971)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Ahrens, T. J. & Rubin, A. M. Impact-induced tensional failure in rock. J. Geophys. Res. E 98, 1185–1203 (1993)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Polanskey, C. A. & Ahrens, T. J. Impact spallation experiments; fracture patterns and spall velocities. Icarus 87, 140–155 (1990)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Arakawa, M., Shirai, K. & Kato, M. Shock wave and fracture propagation in water ice by high velocity impact. Geophys. Res. Lett. 27, 305–308 (2000)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Sharon, E. & Fineberg, J. Microbranching instability and the dynamic fracture of brittle materials. Phys. Rev. B 54, 7128–7139 (1996)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Sagy, A., Reches, Z. & Roman, I. Dynamic fracturing; field and experimental observations. J. Struct. Geol. 23, 1223–1239 (2001)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Freund, L. B. Dynamic Fracture Mechanics (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1990)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  28. Henkel, H. & Reimold, W. U. Integrated geophysical modelling of a giant, complex impact structure; anatomy of the Vredefort Structure, South Africa. Tectonophysics 287, 1–20 (1998)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  29. Dally, J. W. Dynamic photoelastic studies of fracture. Exp. Mech. 19, 349–361 (1979)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Therriault, A. M., Grieve, R. A. F. & Reimold, W. U. Original size of the Vredefort Structure; implications for the geological evolution of the Witwatersrand Basin. Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 32, 71–77 (1997)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank W. U. Reimold and E. G. Charlesworth for information and hospitality at the Vredefort site; the Rogers Group's Newton County quarry for their hospitality at the Kentland site; and G. Cohen for assistance. This work was supported by the United States–Israel Binational Fund.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel

    Amir Sagy & Ze'ev Reches

  2. The Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel

    Jay Fineberg

Authors
  1. Amir Sagy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ze'ev Reches
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jay Fineberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jay Fineberg.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sagy, A., Reches, Z. & Fineberg, J. Dynamic fracture by large extraterrestrial impacts as the origin of shatter cones. Nature 418, 310–313 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature00903

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature00903

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing