NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Collections About News Help Login
Back to Results
Russian-US Partnership to Study the 23-km-diameter El'gygtgyn Impact Crater, Northeast RussiaEl'gygytgyn crater, located within Eastern Siberia, is a Pliocene-aged (3.6 Ma), well-preserved impact crater with a rim diameter of roughly 23 km. The target rocks are a coherent assemblage of crystalline rocks ranging from andesite to basalt. At the time of impact the region was forested and the Arctic Ocean was nearly ice-free. A 15-km lake fills the center of the feature and water depths are approximately 175 m. Evidence of shock metamorphism, -- including coesite, fused mineral glasses, and planar deformation features in quartz -- has been reported. This feature is one of the youngest and best preserved complex craters on Earth. Because of its remote Arctic setting, however, El gygytgyn crater remains poorly investigated. The objectives of this three-year project are to establish and maintain a research partnership between scientists from Russia and the United States interested in the El gygytgyn crater. The principal institutions in the U.S. will be the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The principal institution in Russia will be the North East Interdisciplinary Scientific Research Institute (NEISRI), which is the Far-East Branch of the Russian Academy of Science. Three science tasks are identified for the exchange program: (1) Evaluate impactite samples collected during previous field excursions for evidence of and level of shock deformation. (2) Build a high-resolution digital elevation model for the crater and its surroundings using interferometric synthetic aperture radar techniques on JERS-1, ERS-1, ERS-2, and/or RadarSat range-doppler data. (3) Gather all existing surface data available from Russian and U.S. institutions (DEM, remote sensing image data, field-based lithological and sample maps, and existing geophysical data) and assemble into a Geographic Information Systems database.
Document ID
20030068028
Acquisition Source
Headquarters
Document Type
Contractor or Grantee Report
Authors
Sharpton, Virgil L. (Alaska Univ. Fairbanks, AK, United States)
Minyuk, Pavel S. (Academy of Sciences (Russia) Magadan, Russia)
Brigham-Grette, Julie (Massachusetts Univ. Amherst, MA, United States)
Glushkova, Olga (Academy of Sciences (Russia) Magadan, Russia)
Layer, Paul (Alaska Univ. Fairbanks, AK, United States)
Raikevich, Mikhail (Academy of Sciences (Russia) Magadan, Russia)
Stone, David (Alaska Univ. Fairbanks, AK, United States)
Smirnov, Valdimir (Academy of Sciences (Russia) Magadan, Russia)
Date Acquired
September 7, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2002
Subject Category
Geophysics
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAG5-8722
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

Related Records

There are no records associated with this record.
No Preview Available