BOOK

"Impact Cratering: A Geologic Process"
by H J Melosh, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona
published by Oxford University Press, New York 1989
vii + 245 pages

This text is number 11 in the Oxford Monographs on Geology and Geophysics. It was first issued as a paperback in 1996 and is the technical reference for the physical processes involved in the formation of hypervelocity impact craters.

The 12 chapters have titles:

1 Themes in the Study of Impact Cratering
2 Crater Morphology
3 Stress Waves in Solids
4 Cratering Mechanics: Contact and Compression Stage
5 Cratering Mechanics: Excavation Stage
6 Ejecta Deposits
7 Scaling of Crater Dimensions
8 Cratering Mechanics: Modification Stage
9 Multiring Basins
10 Cratered Landscapes
11 Atmospheric Interactions
12 Impact Cratering and Planetary Evolution

These chapters are followed by two appendices deriving the Hugoniot equations and the presenting the equations of state for impact cratering, a general bibliography (each chapter has its own set of general and special references), and a good index.

As can be gathered from the chapter titles, the text is concerned with impact cratering not just on Earth, but throughout the solar system.

[ Melosh was instrumental in showing that meteoritic material could be ejected from Mars (and other bodies) during hypervelocity impacts, when conventional wisdom was that no material of any significant size could survive such a process. ]