More about the Programme
The ESF Impact Program aims at understanding impact processes and their effects on the Earth System, including environmental, biological, and geological changes, and consequences for the biodiversity of ecosystems.
The Program is concerned with the understanding of the linkage between impact processes and the Earth System, i.e., defining and studying the effects of impact events on the environment, including atmospheric, climatic, biologic, and geologic effects and interactions between these subsystems. Important aspects of future research regard also the consequences of the high-energy impact events for the biodiversity of ecosystems. Comprehending the processes that are responsible for these interactions is the key goal of the programme. Three main areas, each coupled with and dependent on the others and following a time sequence, can be identified:
- The Impact Event: Knowledge of the physical and chemical constraints of the impact process are still limited. Differences between impacts in a continental versus a marine environment need to be assessed, as well as a better understanding of the astronomical background (i.e., the population of earth orbit crossing asteroids and comets). This topic includes issues of potential importance for the Earth’s climate, such as shock- degassing of carbonate- and sulfate-bearing rocks.
- Energy Transfer to the Environment: The mechanism of how the enormous energy that is released during an impact event is actually transferred to the atmo-, hydro-, bio-, and geosphere is probably the least understand part in the chain that may link impact events with environmental changes.
- Short- and Long-Term Effects on the Environment: Once the impact energy is imparted onto the Earth System, the response of the environment needs to be studied. This section includes various topics, such as the formation of economically important mineral deposits. Regional to global long-term effects may include climatic consequences, which are badly understood and require extensive computer modeling, and effects on the biodiversity of ecosystems. This topic is not restricted to impact-related mass extinctions, but may also involve an increase in biodiversity.
News/Current Status
This programme was approved by the ESF Executive Council in November 1997 to start operations in January 1998 for a duration of five years. It is supported by Member Organisations from Austria, Belgium, Finland, France (CEA and CNRS), Germany, Hungary, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
