This book highlights the most prominent research on the Popigai meteorite crater (Siberia, Russia), the 6th largest known impact structure in the world. Not only does the crater have a diameter of roughly 100 km, it is also an estimated 35.7 million years old.
This monograph is an updated, extended and revised edition of the Russian-language book “Diamond-bearing Impactites of Popigai Astrobleme” and presents the most comprehensive research on the Popigai impact structure. The Popigai crater is unique in that the total amount of impact diamonds it contains exceeds all the other diamond-bearing provinces of the world.
The work presented here is based on the geological mapping, core logging, geophysical survey and petrological studies of the crater, and was written by the team of geologists who first described the Popigai impact structure and its diamonds, and took part in the exploration of their deposits from 1970 to 1985.
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
Victor L. Masaitis
Popigai impact crater Impact diamonds Shock metamorphism Impact rocks Impact event meteorite Popigai crater Popigai diamonds mineral resources