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IMPACT CRATERING
In the classroom, the Impact Cratering exercise teaches about the most important geological process
in the solar system! This exercise was developed many years ago, probably at Brown University. The
version Hort presented is similar to
what we do at LPI -- Hort used flour as the target, and we use playground sand (here, flour
grows weevils, seemingly by spontaneous generation). Tempra paint powder is great to mark the surface and
subsurface layers in the target material. |
Hort having just fired the slingshot at the impact target. YOUR STUDENTS MUST WEAR SAFETY GLASSES. Credit. |
The impact crater. Lumpy gray ejecta has been tossed out on top of the blue surface 'soil'
of this "Colorado Plateau Plain." Credit. |
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Measuring crater sizes and how far the ejecta was thrown. This exercise can be used for collection of quantitative data and graphing. Credit. |
Enjoying (?) the impact. Credit. |