Aerial and surface effects of cosmic airbursts: recent events, geological archives and analogues

Marie-Agnès Courty1, 2, Jean-Michel Martinez1, Hervé Glénat1, Roland Benoît3, Sylvie Bonnamy3 and Michaël Vaillant4

1CNRS- UPR 8521 PROMES. Procédés et Matériaux Solaires. Rambla de la Thermodynamique. Tecnosud. 66100 Perpignan, FR. marie-agnes.courty@promes.cnrs.fr. 2IPHES. Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social. Universitat Rovira i Virgil, Tarragona, Spain ; 3Centre de Recherche sur la Matière Divisée (C.R.M.D.). CNRS / Université d'Orléans, FR. 4 CNES DCT/DA GEIPAN, Toulouse FR.

Cosmic airburst: entry of high velocity extra-terrestrial bolide

Meteorite fall

Atmospheric fireball

Dispersion ellipse of meteorite fragments

Strewnfield of proximal ejecta

Inter-hemispheric to global dispersion of

distal ejecta

Surface deflagration

No exotic debris

Local effects

Meteorite debris

Impact ejecta debris

Zero Signal

Surface fusion

Melted surface

Airburst surface Signal

Meteorite Signal Impact Ejecta Signal

Crater structure

High altitude acoustic wave Hot debris jet Meteorite impact

Multiple enigma, confusing situations

Zero Signal Airburst Signal Meteorite

Signal

Impact Ejecta Signal

1cm

Rochette et al., 2008

480 Ka: Airburst layers Transantactic Mountains

Cosmic spherules ??

Ablation debris from micrometeorites ??

Australasian tektite

strewnfield

Microtektites

Unmelted clasts

Glass & Koeberl, 2006

Badyukov et al. 2011

1908 Tunguska

40x103 T. annual cosmic rate

Guiata & Martegani, 2008

Geological deposits

Confusion anthropogenic emissions

Wickramasingh et al., 2013

Sri Lanka, 2012 October 29

Carbonaceous meteorite,

Antarctica species…

Cosmos origin?

Diatoms

Schlieren Lechatelierite

>1700°C

Local plant phytoliths

Ozinski et al., 2008

Dkhaleh impact event Egypt, 145±19 ka

Airburst or ejecta

Studied materials

Experimental analogue High velocity collision 4-8 km/s

HiPersephone light-gun power Gramat CEA Defense Department

Reference situations Undisputed cosmic events

Puzzling impact products Airburst or impact ejecta

• 2011 August 3rd: Angles France meteor airburst, debris fall pulverization

• 0.8 Ma Australasian : tektites & microtektites in sedimentary archives

Refuted cosmic events Exotic terrestrial debris

• 1908 June 30 Tunguska (airburst) • 1864 14 May Orgueil (meteorite fall)

• Darwin glass strewnfield

• Dakhleh glass, Egypt

• Henbury crater-field. NT-Australia

• Younger Dryas Debris Layer • 4 kyr BP Debris Layer • 2.4 kyr BP Debris Layer…

Different situations

Identical precursors Common physics

Concentration – Segregation - Pulverization

Similar forming processes and initial conditions

Research hypothesis: effect of stratospheric dust layers on the physics of airbursts

A similar signal

Aerosol veils: August 8, 1991, 2 months after the Pinatubo eruption.

Effect of stratospheric dust layers on the physics of airbursts

Hydrodynamic break

Combustible concentration

Aerosol aggregation

Airbursts: pulverization of terrestrial debris from stratospheric aerosols

Acetylene layers terrestrial

Aerosol layer cosmic/terrestrial

Cosmic input

Terrestrial input

Neutral atomic metals

7 SINGH S. P. et al. International journal for numerical methods in fluids (2005)

Hydrodynamical explanation and analogies

Re: 106

Re: 105

Re: 103

Recirculation and concentration in the

drag even at very high Re (Reynolds number)

Re for Chelyabinsk : 38.104 at 90 km 9.106 at 50 km 136.106 at 30 km

projectile Shock layer

Ablation boundary layer HP-HT

Drag: LP-MT

Concentration of aerosols Ultra-centrifugation

HiPersephone light-gun power- Gramat CEA- France

Steel projectile: pulverization Sabot/Projectile separation Aluminium target: delamination

Polystyrene Polycarbonate

Polystyrene

Experimental analogue: High velocity collision 4-8 km/s

Polyethylene in the cracks

Two generations of synthetized polymers from the vaporized carbonaceous materials

2.6 x 10-2 mbar

No velocity reduction

Re=5.7, laminar regime Re-circulation in the wake

C

O

Na

Al

Si

P

P

S S

ClCl

K

K CaCa

Ca

FeFe

Fe

Cu

Cu

Cu

Ag

Ag

keV0

500

1000

1500

2000

0 5 10 15 20

Pulverised carbon/metal/debris

Carbon matrix: nanoparticles

Magnetite

Fe-Cr-Ni metal

Ag

Raman spectra

Graphite, shocked-graphite, graphene

Concentration, segregation, pulverization

Fe-Cr-Ni

CuZn

Polymers

Front crater: HP shock-HT Wake: vaporization

TEM

EDS

ESEM

ESEM

Concentration – Segregation - Pulverization

All past and recent cosmic events

5 mm

Unique surface soil signal

1 mm

500 µm 500 µm 500 µm 1 cm

Composite polymers Metal/Carbon splashed grains

Metal flakes Terrestrial Hybrid Aggregates

1908 Tunguska debris layer

Meteor airburst Angles (France) 2011 August 3rd

Henbury Crater Field (NT-Australia) ca 4.8 kyr BP

Similar exotic terrestrial debris

500µ m

a-propylene

Raman spectra

Graphene-oxide

Polymer Nanocomposites

500µ m

TEM

TiO2

Tof-SIMS DRX Paraffine

Mass (u)20 40 60 80 100 120 140

5x10

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0Inte

nsity

(cou

nts)

Max : C3H7+

C

O

Si

ClCl

CaCa

Ca

Ti

Ti

Ti

CrCr

Cr

FeFe

FeCu

CuCuke0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

0 5 10 15 20ANGCh39Gr4

00-014-0763 (Q) - Paraffin wax - C-HANGCh39Gr4 - File: d8_arj44017_m.raw - Temp.: -173 °C - Creation: 29/09/2011 18:00:12

Sqrt

(Cou

nts)

0

10

100

1000

200

300

400

500

600

2-Theta - Scale16 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

C14: > 43 500 year BP dC13: -30.3 o/oo

Terrestrial

EDS

XRD - Paraffine

Coalesced nanospheres

Nanometals

Low Temperature Polymer “cold glue”

Raman spectra

Graphene SWNT

Paraffine SEM

Many carbon radicals

Amino-acids

Micro-agglutinate magnetite-graphite-Ag Nano-porous silica in graphitic carbon & nano-metals TEM

5mm

100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600

Raman shift / cm-1

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

1100

Counts

Raman Spectrometry

Graphitized plant cells

5 nm

Graphite

Graphene oxide

Nano-spheres Ag

High Temperature Glassy Carbon: refractory

TEM TEM

TEM TEM

Frontal debris

Zhamanshin (Khazakstan) 14 km impact crater 0.9 Ma

Saccospyris antarctica

“Impact-breccia”

Terrestrial inclusions

200 µm

1086.4

511.6

356.3

810.2

984.9

1161.0

1271.5

1456.7

1383.5

1167.0

126.4

205.5

466.8

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Intensity (a.u.)

500 1000 1500Wavenumber (cm-1)

Concentration of terrestrial aeorosols

Polymerised plant

Nanoplancton

Diaplectic quartz

Shocked quartz injected with graphite, graphene & polymer Segregated

metals

Raman spectra

quartz carbon

Marine microorganisms

BSE

SE 2mm

100 µm

Stylatractus

Film of carbonaceous nanospheres

Barranc de la Boella (Esp.) 0.8 Ma – Human occupation

Mammuthus Meridionalis Defense fragment with black traces

Fe-Cr-Ni

Polymers Polymer pulverisation at the surface

Marine aerosols (Antarctica) Metals

Mechanical properties of the Nano-Composites (under 10 mN charge)

Young modulus of usual materials in GPa

Diamond Alumine Steel Mullite Glass Granite Graphite Concrete Wodd Polystyrene Polyethylene Rubber

1100 380 210 145 70 60 30 20 à 50 9 à 20 3,2 à 3,5

0,14 à 0,38

0,77 à 4,2

PJ8AGVN

PJ8ACh

MATGVN

MATChB

CFA

HbGVNbHbGVNb matrice

MDV4

BKGVN

HbGVNc

MD032603a

HbPOL1

ANGZBPB1

ANGZDGVN

GRI56BP1

Sabot (cea)

ANGZBPB2

ANGZAPB1

ANGZBPV1BG5

BAR94-43

MD972142PB ANGCh34

GR156BP2 (cea)

0,00

0,02

0,04

0,06

0,08

0,10

0,12

0,14

0,16

0,18

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000

Contact depth (nm)

H / E

r

PJ8AGVN

PJ8ACh

MATGVN

MATChB

CFA

HbGVNb

HbGVNb matrice

MDV4

BKGVN

HbGVNc

MD032603a

HbPOL1

ANGZBPB1

ANGZDGVN

GRI56BP1

Sabot (cea)

ANGZBPB2

ANGZAPB1

ANGZBPV1

BG5

BAR94-43

MD972142PB

ANGCh34

GR156BP2 (cea)

HARD POLYMER s 0,16 to 0,72 GPa

1,7 to 11,7 GPa

SOFT POLYMERS 0,001 to 0,03 GPa

0,02 to 2,6 GPa

GLASSY CHAR Dureté ® 0,14 à 5,5 GPa

Module ® 3 à 71 GPa

Highly resistant, non biodegradable: effect of nanoparticles???

Nanoindentation: contact depth Soft

Redu

ced

youn

g M

odulus

Elas

tic

Plas

tic

Hard

Experiment

August 2011

480 kyr BP

Experiment

August 2011

Henbury

0.8 Myr

1 cm

Surface effects

• Production of Polymer Nanocomposites (PNC) from terrestrial aerosols precursors

• Synthesis of new carbonaceous species

Sudden atmospheric loading by carbonaceous aerosols

Surface pulverisation of PNC : hydrophobic, UV resistant, plastic/elastic

Change of radiation budget, surface rheology, soil & water chemistry

CCN effets: Heavy rains Violent hailstorms

Critical role of nano-sized particles TiO2, Al, As, Pb … on environment and human health

2011 August 3rd

Aerial effects of cosmic airbursts

• Velocity reduction

long lasting records of cosmic airbursts and impact events

65 Myr K/T boundary layer

Tremp basin, Spain coll. Davinia Díez-

Canseco

Polymer nanocomposites and

polymer-coated marine microfossils

500µ m

Cosmic airbursts

Pulverization at the Earth’s surface of resistant natural composite plastics

Regional discontinuity Remarkable surface

Binocular ESEM

Take-home deep thoughts …

• Cosmic impacts are part of Earth and Human history

• Cosmic impacts have been a driving force of life and human evolution

• Cosmic impacts are deep in human psyche and most probably in our genes.

• Cosmic impacts are essential for the re-cycling of life and of natural resources

Why not re-discovering how to continue the great

adventure with cosmic impacts? …

Thank you!