The search of meteorite impact structures in the Fennoscandian Shield - a novel technique

This proposal outlines a new co-operation program on impact craters between the European Space Agency (ESA/ESTEC) and the universities of Oslo and Helsinki along with the geological surveys of Norway and Finland. The main aim is to develop an intelligent search program to identify hidden meteorite impact structures in Fennoscandia. The idea behind the proposal is to use the mathematical Hough-transform (a tool to recognize circumform features) and related pattern recognition algorithms to digital elevatio n models and data such as topographic, bathymetric and airborne geophysical data etc. to identify meteorite impact structures which are known to be of circular form. The Hough-transform has been previously used at ESTEC in planetary applications and a pat tern recognition tool has been recently tested with success for Norwegian data sets. The project has three main phases. We will first develop the new technique and apply it to various data sets of Fennoscandia to pick up some twenty most promising impact features. Second, we will carry out fieldworks in these structures to possibly prove their impact origin. Third: continously these results will be compared with extraterrestrial information. The work will be done as a team work by two doctorate students ( four years each) and two postdocs (two years each) during the next four years (2006-2009). The results provided by the new technique will considerably improve our knowledge of the effects of meteorite impacts on planet Earth.Parts of the work will be done at the ESTEC facilities at Noorwijk.