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Marine Impacts and Their Consequences

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Introduction

Asteroid and comet impacts (meteorite impacts) are important factors in shaping the surface of the terrestrial planets. The impacts release vast amounts of energy resulting in sudden increase in temperature and pressure, structural deformations, and redistribution of target and bolide (asteroid and comet) material. It is presently well accepted that impacts, especially into marine environments, have had a major influence on the development of the Earth. The Earth is covered by 71 % seawater (7 % shelf seas and 64 % deep oceans), and, consequently, impacts into marine targets should be the most common.

Asteroids and comets (both generally called bolides, projectiles, or impactors) impact regularly on the Earth and other planetary bodies in our solar system, forming impact craters, expelling ejecta material, and triggering earthquakes and tsunamis. The impact craters registered on the Earth range from a few meters to hundreds of kilometers in diameter (http://www.passc.net/EarthImpactDatabase/...

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Acknowledgments

L. Thompson kindly helped with the impact crater statistics (http://www.passc.net/EarthImpactDatabase/), while P. Claeys, V. Shuvalov, and A. J. Read commented on an earlier draft of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Boks 1047 - Blindern, NO-0316, Oslo, Norway

    Henning Dypvik

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  1. Henning Dypvik
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Correspondence to Henning Dypvik .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, University of Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland

    Jan Harff

  2. Institute of Geography and Geology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

    Martin Meschede

  3. Leibiniz Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Sven Petersen

  4. Academy of Sciences, Humanities, and Lit c/o Helmholtz-Center for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany

    Jörn Thiede

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Dypvik, H. (2015). Marine Impacts and Their Consequences. In: Harff, J., Meschede, M., Petersen, S., Thiede, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6644-0_69-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6644-0_69-4

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Marine Impacts and Their Consequences
    Published:
    31 January 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6644-0_69-4

  2. Original

    Marine Impacts and Their Consequences
    Published:
    07 June 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6644-0_69-3

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