Effect of Impact Velocity and Angle on Deformational Heating and Postimpact Temperature

Abstract

AbstractThe record of impact‐induced shock heating in meteorites is an important key for understanding the collisional history of the solar system. Material strength is important for impact heating, but the effect of impact angle and impact velocity on shear heating remains poorly understood. Here, we report three‐dimensional oblique impact simulations, which confirm the enhanced heating due to material strength and explore the effects of impact angle and impact velocity. We find that oblique impacts with an impact angle that is steeper than 45‐degrees produce a similar amount of heated mass as vertical impacts. On the other hand, grazing impacts produce less heated mass and smaller heated regions compared to impacts at steeper angles. We derive an empirical formula of the heated mass, as a function of the impact angle and velocity. This formula can be used to estimate the impact conditions (velocity and angle) that occurred and caused Ar loss in the meteoritic parent bodies. Furthermore, our results indicate that grazing impacts at higher impact velocities could generate a similar amount of heated material as vertical impacts at lower velocities. As the heated material produced by grazing impacts has experienced lower pressure than the material heated by vertical impacts, our results imply that grazing impacts may produce weakly shock‐heated meteorites.