Popigai Crater Impactite
Popigai Impactite comes from the Popigai Crater located in Siberia, Russia. This impact crater is 62 miles or 100 km across making it one of the largest impact craters found on earth.
Impactites are formed when asteroids penetrate the rocks of the target location they melt them and shatter them and create new high pressure forms of minerals called polymorphs. After the explosion is over the massive amount of material which was launched into the air settles and crashes back to earth mixing with melted material at the impact location. This process has happened many times and the rocks of the Earth record these events in the form of impact breccias and impactites and other unique rocks.
Popigai Crater was in the news several years ago because of its rich deposits of diamonds. Asteroids making diamonds during the tremendously high pressures and temperatures of an impact with the Earth is not new information. The vast amounts present at the site of the Popigai impact is important.
We are offering slices of Popigai Crater breccia (impactite). Some of the specimens contain glass and all the specimens are porous and light in weight. Because of the violent way they form many impact crater rocks are brittle so some care in handling should be taken. These are nice breccia samples that have a lot going on in them.
