IMPACT-ORIGINATED MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES IN CHINA

Introduction: China has no report on Chinese crater structures, though there are many fallen meteorites in China. Due to heavy weathering by two large rivers in low-land in China. High-land in China has possibility to reserve any meteoritic materials or reserved structure. The main purpose of the study is to elucidate impact materials on high-land of China. Locations of impact evidences: There are two localities to check impact materials in high-land in China as follows [1]: 1) Xining City. The NASA-space shuttle image shows a quasi-circular structure with central peaks ( i.e. center of Xining City) being ca.20 km in size in Xining City, Qinghai Province, China. We can find shocked quartz grains from southern rim, together with Fe-Ni-bearing grains. This crater structure is broken in the radiated direction by three rivers and fault lines which were formed after shock wave event. 2)Qinghai Lake. Qinghai Lake is the largest salt-rich one in China, being ca.60 km times 30km, appears in an irregular shape which probably consists of three smaller lakes (ca.30kmx15km, ca.40kmx15km, and ca.10kmx10km). Three lakes are considered to be separated by large fault line during formation of the present Chinese continent by joining a few smaller continents. From field survey, black and red impact-induced melt breccias are collected at the Qinghai Lake, Qinghai Province, China. Shattercone-like texture on black shale was found at its west and east sides of the lake. Summary. According to satellite images and sample collections and analyses with geological maps, candidates of impact evidences and structures in China are found in Xining distrct and Qinghai Lake, Qinghai Province, P.R.China. Ref. [1] Y.Miura et al.(2004) Shock Wave Proc. 24 (Beijing), pp.6, CD#3851.