GRAVITAS is an international multidisciplinary collaboration aimed to develop scientific research, education, and public communication of planetary science from South Africa.
GRAVITAS aims to better understand impact melt dykes of the Vredefort Impact Structure, South Africa. The Vredefort Impact Structure is one of the largest and oldest meteorite craters on Earth, and learning about impact processes allows us to better constrain how our planet and life developed.
The impact melt dykes were created through melting of the meteorite and the Earth’s impacted crust, which injected into cracks in the crater floor. The impact melt allows us to understand large-scale impact processes, composition of the meteorite, age of the impact, and long term post-impact processes in the crust.
Impact melt rocks are exposed at surface as long semi-continuous lines of boulders. These rocks were used by African first-people as cultural gathering sites and preserve rock art. Studying these sites will expand the body of anthropological knowledge of first peoples.
Conference Proceedings
Kovaleva E., Huber M.S., Clark M., Fourie F., 2019. Timing of emplacement of Vredefort granophyre dykes. Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution VI, LPI Contrib. No. 2136, 5080. Link: https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lmi2019/pdf/5080.pdf
Kovaleva E., Zamyatin D., Leroux H., 2019. Twisted kink bands: New shock deformation microstructure in zircon from the Vredefort impact structure. Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution VI, LPI Contrib. No. 2136, 5056.
Peer-reviewed papers
Huber, M.S., Kovaleva, E., 2020. Identifying Gaps in the Investigation of the Vredefort Granophyre Dikes: A Systematic Literature Review. Geosciences, 10(8), 306.
Kovaleva E., 2020. Textural Identification of Polycrystalline Magmatic, Tectonically-Deformed, and Shock-Related Zircon Aggregates. Minerals, 10(5), 469.
Huber M.S., Kovaleva E., Prevec S., Clark M., accepted to the Geological Society of America Special Paper. Inhomogeneous distribution of lithic clasts within the Daskop Granophyre Dyke, Vredefort Impact Structure: Implications for emplacement of impact melt in large impact structures.
Huber M., Kovaleva E., Riller U., accepted to Meteoritics & Planetary Science. Geochemical modeling of the evolution of impact melt in terrestrial impact basins: Vredefort granophyre dikes and Sudbury Offset Dikes
Kovaleva E., Zamyatin D., Habler G., 2019. Granular zircon from Vredefort granophyre (South Africa) confirms the deep injection model for impact melt in large impact structures. Geology, 47, 691-694, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1130/G46040.1
Fourie F., Huber M.S., Kovaleva E., 2019. Geophysical characterisation of the Daskop Granophyre Dyke and surrounding host rocks, Vredefort impact structure, South Africa. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 54, 1579-1593, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.13300
Primary Collaborators
Prof. David Morris, Head of Archaeology in McGregor Museum and Extraordinary Professor in Sol Plaatje University, Kimberley. https://www.spu.ac.za/index.php/tag/prof-david-morris/
Matthew Huber, Elizaveta Kovaleva, Martin Clark, Francois Fourie, Liezel Blomerus,
University of the Free State, South Africa
Ulrich Riller (https://www.geo.uni-hamburg.de/geologie/personen/riller-ulrich.html) Universität Hamburg, Germany
Dmitry Zamyatin (http://eng.igg.uran.ru/?q=node/55) Zavaritsky Institute of Geology and Geochemistry, Russia