Popigai Impact Structure and its Diamond-Bearing Rocks

Summarizes 15 years of fieldwork on Popigai impact crater and investigations of materials from 800 boreholes (up to 1500 m deep) with a total length of over 100,000 meters

Enriches readers' understanding of impact cratering processes and sheds new light on the formation of diamond-bearing impactites

Features a wealth of color photos of the Popigai impact structure and thin-sectioned samples of shock rocks

Inhalt
Introduction.- Main geological features of impact crater and its environment.- Concentric structural zones and their lithological features.- Petrography of shock-metamorphosed crystalline rocks, impact breccias and impactites.- Petrochemistry and geochemistry of impactites and target rocks.- Impact diamonds from shocked crystalline rocks and impactites.- General patterns of impact diamond distribution.- Origin of diamond-bearing impactites.- Conclusions.