Gerwin Wulf

University of Bonn | Uni Bonn · Fachgruppe Erdwissenschaften

The ejecta blankets of impact craters in volatile-rich environments often possess characteristic layered ejecta morphologies. The so-called double-layered ejecta (DLE) craters are characterized by two ejecta layers with distinct morphologies. The analysis of high-resolution image data, especially HiRISE and CTX, provides new insights into the forma...

The ejecta blankets of impact craters formed on a planetary body that is free of significant quantities of volatiles show substantial differences from those formed on a volatile-rich planetary body. Craters in volatile-rich environments often have layered ejecta blankets with lobe-like ramparts and long runout flows, as seen for Martian impact crat...

The formation of impact craters is a highly dynamic and complex process that subjects the impacted target rocks to numerous types of deformation mechanisms. Understanding and interpreting these styles of micro-, meso- and macroscale deformation has proved itself challenging for the field of structural geology. In this paper, we give an overview of...

Impact crater formation is a highly dynamic and complex geological phenomenon. Methods of structural geology are capable of giving insights into deformation processes that occur during cratering. While most deformation observed in craters exhibits a generally radial symmetry, recent discoveries of non-radial structural elements in the central uplif...

We combine remote sensing and geomorphological analyses with landform evolution modeling to investigate whether or not terrestrial impact crater morphologies are comparable with martian impact craters formed in volatile-rich environments. We conduct a detailed remote sensing analysis of the terrestrial Bosumtwi crater in Ghana (10.5 km, 1.07 Ma) in...

Wrinkle ridges are important landforms on Mars and other planetary bodies and result from horizontal tectonic shortening. This study provides insights into the subsurface of selected wrinkle ridge sites, based on exposures provided by steep escarpments and crater slopes that crosscut wrinkle ridges. We mapped the complex fold and fault patterns and...

Wrinkle ridges are curvilinear, broad arched, and superposed double ridge morphologies [1], and most of them occur, where horizontal shortening is dominant [2]-[4]. On Mars, the Tharsis bulge is an example of a large igneous province that results in a contractional stress regime in its periphery [5]-[7]. The morphologies of circum-Tharsis wrinkle r...

Wrinkle ridges are one of the most widespread tectonic landforms on Mars developed under a compressional stress regime within the lithosphere. In this study, we investigate the morphology and structure of wrinkle ridges at northern Lunae Planum, which belongs to the circum-Tharsis wrinkle ridge system. We use methods to construct balanced cross-sec...

This volume represents the proceedings of the homonymous international conference on all aspects of impact cratering and planetary science, which was held in October 2019 in Brasília, Brazil. This volume contains a sizable suite of contributions dealing with regional impact records (Australia, Sweden), impact craters and impactites, early Archean i...

Rampart craters are omnipresent features on volatile-rich solid planetary surfaces. This raises the question whether, and how many, rampart craters are present on Earth. We reviewed the terrestrial impact crater record with regard to possible rampart morphologies and present detailed morphological analyses of these terrestrial craters here. Our res...

The Ramgarh structure is a morphological landmark in southeastern Rajasthan, India. Its 200 m high and 3.5–4 km wide annular collar has provoked many hypotheses regarding its origin, including impact. Here, we document planar deformation features, planar fractures, and feather features in quartz grains of the central part of the Ramgarh structure,...

Mazrouei et al . (Reports, 18 January 2019, p. 253) found a nonuniform distribution of crater ages on Earth and the Moon, concluding that the impact flux increased about 290 million years ago. We show that the apparent increase on Earth can be explained by erosion, whereas that on the Moon may be an artifact of their calibration method.

Although Middle Palaeolithic stratified and dated sites are still rare in Arabia, recent archaeological, palaeoenvironmental, population genetic, geomatic and geochronological studies have noticeably contributed to a re-evaluation of the prehistory of the region. Here, we report the discovery of a stratified open-air Middle Palaeolithic site in cen...

Since the discovery of shatter cones (SCs) near the village of Agoudal (Morocco, Central High Atlas Mountains) in 2013, the absence of one or several associated circular structures led to speculation about the age of the impact event, the number, and the size of the impact crater or craters. Additional constraints on the crater size, age, and erosi...

Although Middle Palaeolithic stratified and dated sites are still rare in Arabia, recent archaeological, palaeoenvironmental, population genetic, geomatic and geochronological studies have noticeably contributed to a re-evaluation of the prehistory of the region. Here, we report the discovery of a stratified open-air Middle Palaeolithic site in cen...

The cover image, by Jan‐Hendrik May et al., is based on the Research Article Evolution of sandstone peak‐forest landscapes – insights from quantifying erosional processes with cosmogenic nuclides, DOI: 10.1002/esp.4273. Photo Credit: Jan‐Hendrik May. Image Credit: Zhangjiajie UNESCO Global Geopark of China.

The evolution of the solar system is intimately related to its collision history that ultimately led to the formation of planets, satellites and minor bodies. Later on impact cratering processes shaped planetary surfaces and delivered the building blocks for the evolution of life on earth via comets and carbonaceous chondrites. After the short peri...

The sandstone peak-forest landscape in Zhangjiajie UNESCO Global Geopark of Hunan Province, China, is characterized by >3000 vertical pillars and peak walls of up to 350 m height, representing a spectacular example of sandstone landform variety. Few studies have addressed the mechanisms and timescales of the longer-term evolution of this landscape,...

Introduction: The size frequency distribution (SFD) of impact craters has long been used to determine absolute ages for planetary surfaces [1, 2]. In the process, the observed crater size frequency distribution of a given surface unit is fitted on a known crater production function (PF), and the crater frequency for certain crater sizes is used tog...

The fragmentation of target rocks of impact craters has important mechanical implications. We mapped a martian crater that shows different types of breccias.

A new ejecta excavation and emplacement model for DLE craters is developed on the basis of morphological, morphometric, and hyperspectral analyses.

We present the block distribution and orientation of coarse materials exposed at the surface of the two distinct ejecta layers of a DLE crater on Mars.

We present a detailed geological map of the ejecta blanket and crater interior of Steinheim Crater, a DLE crater on Mars.

We concerned the question if the Ries Crater is comparable to martian double-layer ejecta craters by comparing the ejecta distribution outside the crater.

Preliminary interpolation results of the thickness variation of the south-western continuous ejecta blanket outside the Ries impact crater indicate a systematic thickness distribution that deviates from a steady decrease with radial range.

The Ries impact crater with a diameter of ~25 km represents a relatively pristine, complex impact crater in southern Germany that was formed during the Miocene (14.34+-0.08 Ma) [1, 2]. The impact occurred into a two-layered target that consists of ~650 m partly water-saturated and subhorizontally layered sediments (limestones, sandstones, shales) o...

It is possible to derive the trajectory of oblique impacts even if the ejecta blanket is not preserved. We document that strike and dip of strata as well as fault and fold orientations in the central uplift correlate with the trajectory.

We analyzed the contact zone between the inner and outer ejecta layer of a DLE crater on Mars. The results confirm a successive deposition chronology with the inner ejecta layer overlaying the outer layer.

Here we present new impact ejecta modeling results of the paleo-surface and Bunte breccia ejecta outside the Ries impact crater that provide morphology and thickness variations of the Bunte breccia with increasing distance from the crater center.

Here we present new results of the mapping of an unnamed Martian crater extending and confirming these results for a central pit structure of an oblique impact crater.

Structural deformations in central uplifts of oblique impact craters could provide evidence for the impact direction. An unnamed martian crater was geologically mapped to confirm strike orientation as indicator for impact direction.

Photometric correction routines of planetary image data are developed and implemented using the ArcGIS framework with which the assessment, quantification and correction of photometric effects can be improved in an efficient way on an end-user level.

It has been hypothesized that increased water column stratification has been an abiotic "universal driver" affecting average cell size in Cenozoic marine plankton. Gradually decreasing Cenozoic radiolarian shell weight, by contrast, suggests that competition for dissolved silica, a shared nutrient, resulted in biologic coevolution between radiolari...