Development of potential ecological niches in impact-induced hydrothermal systems: The small-to-medium size impacts

Abstract

Effect of meteorite impact on the biological evolution is usually considered by its catastrophic consequences. However, the impacts can create opportunity for other organisms and the structures themselves can serve as suitable ecological niches (oases) for life. In this contribution we present results of modeling of an impact-induced hydrothermal (IHT) system in a small-to-medium sized impact crater, where the development of zones habitable for primitive hydrothermal thermophilic and hypethermophilic microorganisms was studied. The impact and geothermal modeling was verified against the 4-km diameter Kärdla complex structure, Hiiumaa Island, Estonia. If there is an sufficient amount of water present in the target (e.g., sea cover, groundwater or permafrost resources) then the differential temperature fields created by the impact initiate a hydrothermal circulation system within the crater. The results of transient fluid flow and heat transfer simulations in Kärdla suggest that immediately after impact the temperatures in the central area, which contains the most hydrothermal alteration, were well above the boiling point. However, due to efficient heat loss at the groundwater vaporization front, the vapor-dominated area disappears within a few decades. In the central uplift area, the conditions favorable for thermophilic microorganisms (temperatures <100 °C) were reached in 500–1000 years after the impact. The overall cooling to ambient temperatures in the deeper parts of the central uplift lasted for thousands of years. In the crater depression and rim area the initial temperatures, suggested by the impact modeling, were much lower—from 150 °C to ambient temperatures, except locally in fracture zones and suevite pockets. Our data suggest that in small-to-medium size impact craters with insignificant melting, the suitable conditions for hydrothermal microbial communities are established shortly (tens to few hundreds of years as maximum) after the impact in most parts of the crater. In the central uplift area the microbial colonization is inhibited for about a thousand years. However, this is the area, which afterwards retains the optimum temperatures (45–120 °C) needed for hydrothermal microorganisms for the longest period. Geochemical and mineralogical data suggest, in general, neutral pH 7(±1) fluid of the IHT system, which is, when compared to volcanic hydrotherms, richer in dissolved oxygen and poor in reduced compounds. This suggests the preference for sulfur-reducing microorganisms in the possible impact-induced hydrothermal communities.