Impact Field Studies Group

The Impact Field Studies Group (IFSG) is a scientific organization emphasizing geologic field research of suspected and confirmed sites of impact craters and impact structures. The group is composed of researchers, professionals and students involved in study of impact sites.^[1][2] IFSG's web site is hosted by the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Impact Database

IFSG member David Rajmon maintains for the organization a list which was originally called the Suspected Earth Impact Sites (SEIS) list from 2004 to 2009. It was then renamed to simply the Impact Database. The list classifies impact sites as confirmed, most probable, probable, possible, improbable, rejected and proposed (unevaluated). The list retains rejected entries because they tend to be submitted repeatedly.^[3][4]

The IFSG Impact Database accepts submissions of proposed new impact sites. However, they require submitters do some significant homework as listed below first.^[5]

• The submitter should download the Impact Database or KML (Google Earth) version of it to verify that the site has not already been included, and possibly rejected.
• If the submitter is not familiar with the science behind recognition of impact craters, they must read Traces of Catastrophe.
• They should look at maps to consider other alternatives to impact craters, whether man-made (such as mining pits and ponds) or natural (such as sinkholes and volcanic vents).
• The page lists some suggestions how to avoid fixating on the possibility of an impact and consider more open investigation of what the feature is.

Field trips

IFSG arranges field trips to impact-related sites. Past events have included

• Marquez crater, Texas, USA, 2004
• Serpent Mound crater, Ohio, USA, 2004
• Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K–T boundary), Texas, USA, 2005
• Middlesboro crater, Kentucky, USA and Flynn Creek crater, Tennessee, USA, 2005
• Sierra Madera crater, Texas, USA, 2006^[6]
• Kentland crater, Indiana, USA, 2007
• Wells Creek crater, Tennessee, USA, 2008
• Nevada Test Site, Nevada, USA, 2009 (nuclear explosion craters at NTS were how shock metamorphism was studied by Eugene Shoemaker and then applied to create the science of impact geology)

References

External links

• Impact Field Studies Group
• Impact Database maintained for IFSG by member David Rajmon

Impact cratering on Earth • Impact crater
Lists	Worldwide Africa Antarctica Asia Australia Europe North America South America By country
Confirmed ≥20 km diameter	Acraman Amelia Creek Araguainha Beaverhead Boltysh Carswell Charlevoix Chesapeake Bay Chicxulub Clearwater East & West Gosses Bluff Haughton Kamensk Kara Karakul Keurusselkä Lappajärvi Logancha Manicouagan Manson Mistastin Mjølnir Montagnais Morokweng Nördlinger Ries Obolon' Popigai Presqu'île Puchezh-Katunki Rochechouart Saint Martin Shoemaker Siljan Ring Slate Islands Steen River Strangways Sudbury Tookoonooka Tunnunik Vredefort Woodleigh Yarrabubba
Topics	Alvarez hypothesis Breccia Coesite Complex crater Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary Cryptoexplosion Ejecta blanket Impact crater Impact structure Impactite Late Heavy Bombardment Lechatelierite Meteorite Moldavite Ordovician meteor event Planar deformation features Shatter cone Shock metamorphism Shocked quartz Stishovite Suevite Tektite
Research	Baldwin, Ralph Belknap Barringer, Daniel Barringer Medal Chao, Edward C T Dietz, Robert S Hartmann, William K Melosh, H Jay Ryder, Graham Schultz, Peter H Shoemaker, Eugene Earth Impact Database Impact Field Studies Group Lunar and Planetary Institute Traces of Catastrophe