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Impact fragmentation and the efficient fracturing of terrestrial crusts

Fracturing and fragmentation of rocks during hypervelocity impacts drives the evolution of ancient planetary crusts. Fragmentation during impacts is also important for determining the number and size of large ejecta fragments that ultimately produce secondary craters when they impact the surface. A more complete understanding impact fragmentation will help us determine which craters were the sources of Martian meteorites. In this talk I will discuss our efforts to elucidate the process of impact fragmentation using the iSALE shock physics code. We apply our impact fragmentation model lunar bombardment with a focus on in situ fracturing and fragmentation of the lunar crust. We find basin scale impacts efficiently fragment the lunar crust and produce substantial crustal porosity consistent with gravity measurements. We also explore how impacts fractured other ancient planetary crusts.