The ICDP Lake Bosumtwi impact crater scientific drilling project (Ghana): Core LB-08A litho-log, related ejecta, and shock recovery experiments

Abstract

The 1.07 Myr old Lake Bosumtwi impact crater in Ghana was drilled within the framework of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Project (ICDP). Hole LB-08A, drilled into the outer flank of the central uplift and with a total depth of 451 m, yielded 215.71 m of impact-related rocks. This paper summarizes observations of the lithological logging on core LB-08A. Between a depth of 235.6 and ~260 m, the section consists of a melt-bearing allochthonous, polymict, and mostly clast-supported impact breccia. Down to ~418 m, the section comprises a rather uniform unit of metagraywacke alternating with phyllite to slate (lower greenschist facies); few (par-) autochthonous impact breccia bodies and rare impact dike breccias are present. The lowermost part of the section contains several centimeter- to decimeter-thick melt-bearing breccia dikes in country rocks identical to those occurring above. Omnipresent fracturing was mapped in a qualitative manner. Most prominent shock effects in the uplifted target rocks comprise planar fractures and deformation elements in quartz and polysynthetic twinning in carbonate minerals; the maximum shock pressure as evidenced by quartz is below 26 GPa. The allochthonous breccias occasionally contain a few vol% of melt particles. Suevites occur outside the crater rim, carrying diaplectic crystals, coesite, and ballen quartz as well as true melt glasses and a variety of lithic clasts, among those spectacular staurolite-rich mica-schists. The recorded shock level in the uplifted target rocks is lower than expected and modeled. Shock recovery experiments with analogue carbonaceous graywackes at 34 and 39.5 GPa yielded nearly complete transformation of quartz into diaplectic glass. We therefore exclude a specific shock behavior of the soft, fluid-rich target material (carbonaceous graywackes, shales, slates) in core LB-08A as the prime or only reason for the melt deficit and the generally low shock levels recorded inside the Lake Bosumtwi impact crater.