Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Impact cratering is a fundamental and ubiquitous geological process throughout the Solar System. The destructive effects of meteorite impacts have received significant attention, motivated by the quest to understand the role of the Chicxulub impact in what is now the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, 66 million years ago, and its link to the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction event. One of the less well-known aspects of meteorite impact craters is that they also have hidden benefits, such as providing new habitats for microbial communities and the generation of economic mineral deposits. The overarching theme of my research is to investigate and to quantify the potential beneficial effects of meteorite impact events. Specifically, the long-term aim of my research program is to understand the role of meteorite impacts in creating habitable planetary bodies through the production of substrates suitable for prebiotic chemistry and the generation of habitats for life. Understanding these effects is rooted in knowledge of impact cratering processes and products, which has been a foundation of much of my past and ongoing research. This Discovery Grant will enabled a sustained research program focused on advancing our understanding of the creation of substrates and habitats during the hydrothermal phase of crater formation, with application to early Earth and Mars. The short-term objectives of the proposed research are to better understand 4 key aspects of impact-generated hydrothermal systems: �Objective 1) The spatial distribution of hydrothermal habitats in impact craters; �Objective 2) Impact-generated hydrothermal minerals as substrates for life; �Objective 3) The duration of impact-generated hydrothermal systems; �Objective 4) The interplay of impact-generated lakes and -hydrothermal systems. Fieldwork forms the basis for this proposed research, coupled with sample investigation using a range of imaging and analytical techniques. The results of this research program, and the specific short-term objectives of this proposal, will significantly further our understanding of meteorite impact events and their beneficial effects. This research will contribute to the discussion of where, and possibly when, life on Earth originated, by helping to constrain the role of meteorite impacts in the production of substrates suitable for prebiotic chemistry and the generation of habitats for life. This has significant implications for ongoing and future Mars missions and the search for evidence for life beyond Earth. The research on impact-generated hydrothermal systems will also likely be of significance to mining companies and may enable focusing of exploration efforts at Sudbury and other Canadian impact structures to sites with a high likelihood of having economic ore deposits.