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Shatter cones are rare geological features that are only known to form in the bedrock beneath meteorite
Meteorite

A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives an impact with the Earth's surface. While in space it is called a meteoroid....
 impact craters
Impact crater

In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with larger body....
 or underground nuclear explosions
Underground nuclear testing

Underground nuclear testing refers to nuclear testing of nuclear weapons that are performed underground. When the device being tested is buried at sufficient depth, the nuclear explosion may be contained, with no release of radioactive materials to the atmosphere....
. They are evidence that the rock has been subjected to a shock with pressures in the range of 2-30 GPa.

Shatter cones have a distinctively conical shape that radiates from the top (apex) of the cones repeating cone-on-cone in large and small scales in the same sample.






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Shatter Cone
Shatter cones are rare geological features that are only known to form in the bedrock beneath meteorite
Meteorite

A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives an impact with the Earth's surface. While in space it is called a meteoroid....
 impact craters
Impact crater

In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with larger body....
 or underground nuclear explosions
Underground nuclear testing

Underground nuclear testing refers to nuclear testing of nuclear weapons that are performed underground. When the device being tested is buried at sufficient depth, the nuclear explosion may be contained, with no release of radioactive materials to the atmosphere....
. They are evidence that the rock has been subjected to a shock with pressures in the range of 2-30 GPa.

Shatter cones have a distinctively conical shape that radiates from the top (apex) of the cones repeating cone-on-cone in large and small scales in the same sample. Sometimes they're more of a spoon shape on the side of a larger cone. In finer-grained rocks such as limestone, they form an easy to recognize "horsetail" pattern with thin grooves (striae). Coarser grained rocks tend to yield less well developed shatter cones, which may be difficult to distinguish from other geological formations such as slickensides. Geologists have various theories of what causes shatter cones to form, including compression by the wave as it passes through the rock or tension as the rocks rebound after the pressure subsides. The result is large and small branching fractures throughout the rocks.

Shatter cones can range in size from microscopic to several meters. A very large example of more than 10 meters in length is known from the Slate Islands
Slate Islands (Ontario)

The Slate Islands archipelago is formed of two main islands, five minor islands and numerous islets located in northern Lake Superior, 10 km south of the town of Terrace Bay, Ontario....
 impact structure, Canada. The azimuths of the cones's axes typically radiate outwards from the point of impact, with the cones pointing upwards and toward the center of the impact crater, although the orientation of some of the rocks have been changed by post-cratering geological processes at the site.

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See also

  • Breccia
    Breccia

    Breccia is a rock composed of angular fragments of several minerals or rocks in a Matrix , that is a Cementation material, that may be similar or different in composition to the fragments....
  • Coesite
    Coesite

    Coesite is a form of silicon dioxide siliconoxygen2 that is formed when very high pressure and moderately high temperature are applied to quartz....
  • Lechatelierite
    Lechatelierite

    Lechatelierite is silica glass, amorphous SiO2. One common way in which lechatelierite forms naturally is by very high temperature melting of quartz sand during a lightning strike....
  • Shocked quartz
    Shocked quartz

    Shocked quartz is a form of quartz that has a microscopic structure that is different from normal quartz. Under intense pressure , the crystalline structure of quartz will be deformed along planes inside the crystal....
  • Stishovite
    Stishovite

    Stishovite is an extremely hard, dense tetragonal form of silicon dioxide. It was traditionally considered the hardest known oxide; however, boron suboxide was recently discovered to be much harder....