Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Impact Structure and Morphology

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Mjølnir Impact Event and its Consequences

Part of the book series: Impact Studies ((IMPACTSTUD))

  • 601 Accesses

Abstract

The Mjølnir crater (Fig. 3.1) was first interpreted as an impact structure by Gudlaugsson (1993) based on its geophysical signature and overall geological setting. This inference was derived from a limited amount of multichannel seismic profiles, and regional gravity and magnetic profiles. The impact hypothesis prompted the acquisition of high-resolution seismic, gravity and magnetic profiles by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment in 1992 and 1993. Together with the previously acquired shallow and conventional multichannel seismic profiles, these data comprise an extensive and unique geophysical database (Fig. 3.2 and Table 3.1). In addition, stratigraphic, and sedimentological information exists from two shallow boreholes, one near the center (7329/03-U-01) and another ~30 km north-northeast from the crater periphery (7430/10-U-01) (Fig. 3.2). The detailed seismic reflection correlation to the two boreholes, together with the existing regional grid of seismic profiles on the Bjarmeland Platform, have made it possible to correlate the main seismic sequence boundaries at Mjølnir to the established stratigraphic framework of the Barents Sea (Worsley et al. 1988; Gabrielsen et al. 1990; Richardsen et al. 1993; Smelror et al. 2002).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Anderson RR, Witzke BJ, Roddy DJ (1996) The drilling of the 1991–1992 geological survey bureau and US Geological Survey Manson impact structure research cores. In: Koeberl C, Anderson RR (eds) The manson impact structure, Iowa: Anatomy of an impact crater. Geological Society of America Special Paper 302, Boulder, pp 45–88

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Dressler BO, Sharpton VL (1997) Breccia formation at a complex impact crater: Slate Islands, Lake Superior, Ontario, Canada. Tectonophysics 275:285–311

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dypvik H, Attrep M Jr (1999) Geochemical signals of the late Jurassic, marine Mjølnir impact. Meteorit Planet Sci 34:393–406

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dypvik H, Ferrell RE Jr (1998) Clay mineral alteration associated with a meteoric impact in the marine environment (Barents Sea). Clay Miner 33:51–64

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dypvik H, Gudlaugsson ST, Tsikalas F, Attrep M Jr, Ferrell RE Jr, Krinsley DH, Mørk A, Faleide JI, Nagy J (1996) The Mjølnir structure – an impact crater in the Barents Sea. Geology 24:779–782

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dypvik H, Mørk A, Smelror M, Sandbakken PT, Tsikalas F, Vigran JO, Bremer GMA, Nagy J, Gabrielsen RH, Faleide JI, Bahiru M, Weiss H (2004b) Impact breccia and ejecta from Mjølnir crater in the Barents Sea – The Ragnarok Formation and Sindre Bed. Nor Geologisk Tidsskrift 84:143–167

    Google Scholar 

  • Faleide JI, Tsikalas F, Breivik AJ, Mjelde R, Ritzmann O, Engen Ø, Wilson J, Eldholm O (2008) Structure and evolution of the continental margin off Norway and the Barents Sea. In: Gee D, Ladenberger A (eds) Nordic geoscience and 33rd IGC 2008, Episodes, Special Issue 31:82–91

    Google Scholar 

  • Faleide JI, Vågnes E, Gudlaugsson ST (1993) Late Mesozoic-Cenozoic evolution of the southwestern Barents Sea in a rift shear tectonic setting. Mar Pet Geol 10:186–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gabrielsen RH, Færseth RB, Jensen LN, Kalheim JE, Riis F (1990) Structural elements of the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Part I: The Barents Sea Region. Norwegian Pet Directorate Bull 6:33

    Google Scholar 

  • Gérard J, Buhrig, C (1990) Seismic facies of the permian section of the barents shelf: analysis and interpretation. Mar Pet Geol 7:234–252

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gradstein F, Ogg J, Smith A (2004) A geological time scale. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p 589

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gradstein FM, Agterberg FP, Ogg JG, Hardenbol J, van Veen P, Thierry J, Huang Z (1994) A Mesozoic time scale. J Geophys Res 99(B12):24051–24074

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grieve RAF, Pesonen LJ (1992) The terrestrial impact record. Tectonophysics 216:1–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grieve RAF, Pesonen LJ (1996) Terrestrial impact craters: their spatial and temporal distribution and impacting bodies. Earth Moon Planet 72:357–376

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gudlaugsson ST (1993) Large impact crater in the Barents Sea. Geology 21:291–294

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gudlaugsson ST, Faleide JI, Johansen SE, Breivik AJ (1998) Late Palaeozoic structural development of the south-western Barents Sea. Mar Pet Geol 15:73–102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartung JB, Anderson RR (1996) A brief history on investigations of the Manson impact structure. In: Koeberl C, Anderson RR (eds) The Manson impact structure, Iowa: Anatomy of an impact crater. Geological Society of America Special Paper 302, Boulder, pp 31–43

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Jansa LF (1993) Cometary impacts into ocean: their recognition and the threshold constraint for biological extinctions. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 104:271–286

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jansa LF, Pe-Piper G, Robertson BP, Friedenreich O (1989) Montagnais: A submarine impact structure on the Scotian shelf, eastern Canada. Geol Soc Am Bull 101:450–463

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keiswetter D, Black R, Steeples D (1996) Seismic reflection analysis of the Manson impact structure, Iowa. J Geophys Res 101:5823–5834

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kenkmann T, Kiebach F, Rosenau M, Raschke U, Pigowske A, Mittelhaus K, Eue D (2007) Coupled effects of impact and orogeny: Is the marine Lockne crater, Sweden, pristine? Meteorit Planet Sci 42:1995–2012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirschner CE, Grantz A, Mullen MW (1992) Impact origin of the Avak structure, Arctic Alaska, and genesis of the Barrow gas fields. Am Assoc Pet Geol Bull 76:651–679

    Google Scholar 

  • Melosh HJ (1989) Impact cratering: a geologic process. Oxford University Press & Clarendon Press, Oxford, p 245

    Google Scholar 

  • Milkereit B, Green A, Wu J, White D, Adams E (1994) Integrated seismic and borehole geophysical study of the Sudbury igneous complex. Geophys Res Lett 21:931–934

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morgan JV, Warner MR (1999) The third dimension of a multiring impact basin. Geology 26:407–410

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morgan JV, Warner MR, Grieve R (2002b) Geophysical constraints on the size and structure of the Chicxulub impact crater. In: Koeberl C, MacLeod KG (eds) Catastrophic events and mass extinctions: impacts and beyond. Geological Society of America Special Paper 356, Boulder, pp 49–46

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Movshovich EV, Milyavsky AE (1990) Morphology and inner structure of Kamensk and Gusev astroblemes. In: Masaitis VL (ed) Impact craters of the Mesozoic-Cenozoic boundary. Nauka Press, Leningrad, pp 110–146

    Google Scholar 

  • Pilkington M, Grieve RAF (1992) The geophysical signature of terrestrial impact craters. Rev Geophys 30:161–181

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pilkington M, Jansa LF, Grieve RAF (1995) Geophysical studies of the Montagnais impact crater, Canada. Meteoritics 30:446–450

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poag CW (1996) Structural outer rim of Chesapeake Bay impact crater: Seismic and borehole evidence. Meteorit Planet Sci 31:218–226

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poag CW, Koeberl C, Reimold WU (2004) The Chesapeake Bay crater: Geology and geophysics of a Late Eocene submarine impact structure. Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg, p 522

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Poag CW, Powars DS, Poppe LJ, Mixon RB (1994) Meteoroid mayhem in the Ole Virginny: source of the North American tektite strewn field. Geology 22:691–694

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Puura V, Suuroja K (1992) Ordovician impact crater at Kärdla, Hiiumaa Island, Estonia. Tectonophysics 216:143–156

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richardsen G, Vorren TO, Tørudbakken BO (1993) Post-Early Cretaceous uplift and erosion in the southern Barents Sea: a discussion based on analysis of seismic interval velocities. Nor Geologisk Tidsskrift 73:3–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Roddy DJ (1977) Largescale impact and explosion craters: comparisons of morphological and structural analogs. In: Roddy DJ et al (eds) Impact and explosion cratering. Pergamon Press, Tarrytown, pp 185–246

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandbakken P, Langenhorst F, Dypvik H (2005) Shock metamorphism of quartz at the submarine Mjølnir impact crater, Barents Sea. Meteorit Planet Sci 40:1363–1375

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shuvalov V, Dypvik H, Tsikalas F (2002) Numerical simulations of the Mjølnir marine impact crater. J Geophys Res 107:doi 10.1029/2001JE001698

    Google Scholar 

  • Smelror M, Dypvik H, Mørk A (2002) Phytoplankton blooms in the Jurassic Cretaceous boundary beds of the Barents Sea possibly induced by the Mjølnir impact. In Buffetaut E, Koeberl C (eds) Geological and biological effects of impact events. Lecture notes in Earth Sciences, Impact Studies. Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg, pp 69–81

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Smelror M, Kelly SRA, Dypvik H, Mørk A, Nagy J, Tsikalas F (2001a) Mjølnir (Barents Sea) meteorite impact offers a Volgian-Ryazanian boundary marker. Newsl Stratigr 38:129–140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smelror M, Mørk MBE, Mørk A, Løseth H, Weiss HM (2001b) Middle Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous transgressive-regressive sequences and facies distribution off Troms, northern Norway. In: Martinsen OJ, Dreyer T (eds) Sedimentary environments offshore Norway – Palaeozoic to recent. Norwegian Pet Soc Spec Publ 10:211–232

    Google Scholar 

  • Spudis PD (1993) The geology of multiring impact basins. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p 263

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stöffler D, Ewald U, Ostertag R, Reimold WU (1977) Research drilling Nördlingen 1973, Ries: composition and texture of polymictic impact breccias. Geol Bavarica 75:163–190

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsikalas F, Faleide JI (2007) Postimpact structural crater modification due to sediment loading: An overlooked process. Meteorit Planet Sci 42:2013–2029

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsikalas F, Faleide JI, Eldholm O, Dypvik H (2002b) Seismic correlation of the Mjølnir marine impact crater to shallow boreholes. In: Plado J, Pesonen LJ (eds) Impacts in Precambrian Shields. Impact Studies. Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg, pp 307–321

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Tsikalas F, Gudlaugsson ST, Eldholm O, Faleide JI (1998c) Integrated geophysical analysis supporting the impact origin of the Mjølnir Structure, Barents Sea. Tectonophysics 289:257–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsikalas F, Gudlaugsson ST, Faleide JI (1998a) Collapse, infilling, and postimpact deformation at the Mjølnir impact structure, Barents Sea. Geol Soc Am Bull 110:537–552

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsikalas F, Gudlaugsson ST, Faleide JI (1998b) The anatomy of a buried complex impact structure: The Mjølnir Structure, Barents Sea. J Geophys Res 103:30469–30484

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsikalas F, Gudlaugsson ST, Faleide JI, Eldholm O (1999) Mjølnir Structure, Barents Sea: A marine impact crater laboratory. In: Dressler B, Sharpton VL (eds) Large meteorite impacts and planetary evolution II. Geological Society of America Special Paper 339, Boulder, pp 193–204

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Tsikalas F, Gudlaugsson ST, Faleide JI, Eldholm O (2002a) The Mjølnir marine impact crater porosity anomaly. Deep Sea Res Part II 49:1103–1120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turtle EP, Pierazzo E, Collins GS, Osinski GR, Melosh HJ, Morgan JV, Reimold WU (2005) Impact structures: What does crater diameter mean? In: Kenkmann T, Hörz F, Deutsch A (eds) Large meteorite impacts III. Geological Society of America Special Paper 384, Boulder, pp 1–24

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • von Dalwigk I, Ormö J (2001) Formation of resurge gullies at impacts at sea: The Lockne crater, Sweden. Meteorit Planet Sci 36:359–369

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • von Engelhardt W (1990) Distribution, petrography and shock metamorphism of the ejecta of the Ries crater in Germany: A review. Tectonophysics 171:259–273

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wessel P, Smith WHF (1998) New improved version of generic mapping tools released, EOS Trans Am Geophys Union 79(47):579

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Worsley D, Johansen R, Kristensen SE (1988) The Mesozoic and Cenozoic succession of Tromsøflaket. In: Dalland A, Worsley D, Ofstad K (eds) A lithostratigraphic scheme for the Mesozoic and Cenozoic succession offshore mid- and northern Norway. Norwegian Pet Directorate Bull 4:42–65

    Google Scholar 

  • Gradstein FM, Agterberg FP, Ogg JG, Hardenbol J, Bäckström S (1999) On the Cretaceous time scale. Neues Jahrb Geol Palaontol Abh 212:3–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eni Norge AS, NO-4064, Stavanger, Norway

    Filippos Tsikalas

  2. Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, NO-0316, Oslo, Norway

    Filippos Tsikalas & Jan Inge Faleide

  3. Iceland GeoSurvey, Reykjavik, Iceland

    Steinar Thor Gudlaugsson

  4. Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, NO-5007, Bergen, Norway

    Olav Eldholm

Authors
  1. Filippos Tsikalas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jan Inge Faleide
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Steinar Thor Gudlaugsson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Olav Eldholm
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Filippos Tsikalas .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Geology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Filippos Tsikalas

  2. Dept. Geology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Henning Dypvik

  3. (NGU), Geological Survey Norway, Trondheim, Norway

    Morten Smelror

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Tsikalas, F., Faleide, J.I., Gudlaugsson, S.T., Eldholm, O. (2010). Impact Structure and Morphology. In: Tsikalas, F., Dypvik, H., Smelror, M. (eds) The Mjølnir Impact Event and its Consequences. Impact Studies. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-88260-2_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation