%0 Journal Article
%T Portrait of an Impact Strewn Field—Thermoclastic Ricochet Track: Eocene-Oligocene Transition (EOT), Jordan, Arabian Plate
%A Werner Schneider
%A Elias Salameh
%J Open Journal of Geology
%P 174-197
%@ 2161-7589
%D 2025
%I Scientific Research Publishing
%R 10.4236/ojg.2025.153008
%X Almost coevally with worldwide impact events, immediately at the beginning of the Eocene-Oligocene Transformation (EOT), (34.0 - 33.5 Ma), the Jordanian Platform and adjacent areas underwent an Impact Strewnfield/Ricochet-Scenery along a W/NW-striking ~400 km long strip, connected with triggered basalt magmatism (B1 - B3) and relating to the initial Red Sea Opening (34 Ma). The members of the Impact Ensemble expose along the &#8220;Fireline&#8221; a broad spectrum of characteristic impact structures (crater, ring structures, irregular structures) exhibiting thermo-clastic deformation ranging from low temperature to pyroxenite-sanidine hornfels facies of the Maastrichtian to Eocene target rocks (carbonate-, chert deposits), chert melt (~1400&#730;C: Jebel Waqf as Suwwan) and many mineral neoformations up to &gt;1100&#730;C. Careful lithostratigraphic reviewing (including nannoplankton, and pelagic foraminifers) in the remote NE, near the Jordanian/Iraqi border area, and modern <i>&#948;</i><sup>13</sup>C- and <i>&#948;</i><sup>18</sup>C-isotope data of high resolution allow detailed age interpretation of impacting, triggered basalt magmatismus (B1 - B3) and lithofacies change from pelagic &#8220;Greenhouse&#8221;-carbonate rocks to oxygene-deficient bituminous baryte-bearing marls during step-wise microfauna extinction and high disturbance (&#8220;Cosmic Winter&#8221;-Environment: 34.0 - 33.9 Ma = 100 kyr). After the EOT, the lithofacies changed abruptly above a significant unconformity to glauconite-bearing mixed siliciclastics during the Early Oligocene Glacial Maximum (EOGM 33.5 - 33.0 Ma), followed by recovered lithofacies and microfauna under rising temperature. The subvolcanic precursors of the Red Sea-Opening (<i>i.e.</i> Sinai) penetrated the Arabian Shield by sills and dikes (44.42 - 41.34 Ma) and provided a restricted magma volume up to a surface near &#8220;highstand-level&#8221;, to be impact-triggered and to cause locally restricted outpourings (B1 - B3) or merely basaltic crater seams and jets without outflow. The major plateau basalt outpourings/harrats (B4 - B6) across the Arabian Shield took place during Oligocene-Miocene B. to the Pleistocene, directed by plate tectonic forces in connection with the Red Sea-rifting and the collision of the Arabian with the Eurasian Plates.
%K Volcanism
%K Impacting Affect Sedimentology
%K Mineralogy
%K Cosmic Winter
%K Jordanian Platform
%U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=141583