Shocked Soil—A Rare Terrestrial Impactite

Abstract Impactites generally consist of target rocks subjected to a shock wave during an impact event, but can theoretically be composed of surficial materials such as soil or other unconsolidated surface materials. Frothy samples found in the impact melt‐bearing breccia circum Lonar crater, India have a significantly lower density than shocked bedrock basalts. Analyses of petrographic and back‐scattered electron images along with mineralogical and geochemical comparisons between the target basalts and local Deccan soils suggest that these are shocked soils that were compressed and lithified during the impact event. Hyperspectral images reveal both unshocked and shocked silicates and glasses along with organics on a scale of millimeters. Shocked soils/regoliths could hold tremendous value as recorders of ancient lithosphere‐hydrosphere‐atmosphere reactions on this planet as well as on Mars.