Physical map of the impact structure of the Serra da Cangalha, Brazil, created with the digital elevation model of the TanDEM-X mission. Photo credits: Gottwald, Kenkmann, Reimold: Terrestrial impact structures, TanDEM-X-Atlas, Verlag Dr. Friedrich Arrow
Prof. Dr. Thomas Kenkmann, geologist at the Institute for Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Freiburg, together with the mineralogist Prof. Dr. Wolf Uwe Reimold from the University of Brasilia, Brazil, and Dr. Manfred Gottwald from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) published an atlas with a comprehensive overview of all known impact craters on all continents. The authors present the more than 200 terrestrial impact points in high-resolution topographic maps and satellite images with detailed geological descriptions and photographs of the crater structures and their rocks. They also explain the essential details of each impact event.
The formation of craters from asteroid and comet impact has always been a fundamental process in the solar system, explains Kenkmann. While the planets developed together with their moons, these influences played an important role in the accumulation of planetary mass, the formation of the surfaces of planetary bodies and later also in their influence. And larger meteor impacts eventually influenced the development of life on earth.
Today, satellites in orbit can map what can still be seen of the impact structures on the earth’s surface. From 2010 to 2016, DLR successfully measured the earth’s surface with the radar satellites of the TanDEM-X mission. For the first time, a global terrain model with an altitude could be derived from the recorded data accuracy of up to one meter. From this global digital elevation model, the authors were able to create this complete topographic atlas of 600 pages with information on all known terrestrial impact craters.
Reference: Gottwald, M., Kenkmann, T., Reimold, WU (2020): Terrestrial impact structures. The TanDEM-X Atlas. Part 1 and 2. Munich.
