Impact Geology: The Basics

The impact of solid objects onto the surfaces of larger solid objects in our solar system and beyond represents the primary surface modification process that produces most of the geologic features seen on surface of these target objects…including the primary surface modification process on Earth.  This volume presents a discussion of the hypervelocity impact processes that form impact craters and have been studied in the laboratory for over 60 years, and a discussion of the extrapolation of the laboratory-scale data to the formation of full-scale geologic impact structures follows.  A discussion of impact structure identification and verification is included.