Auriol S. P. Rae , Veronica J. Bray

The process of impact crater formation can fundamentally change the nature of target materials, creating products that can be observed from planetary-scale geophysics all the way down to mineral microstructure. Impact-generated shock waves can vaporise, melt, and permanently deform the materials they pass through. Large quantities of the target are damaged and displaced, ejecting material outside of the crater and redistributing various shock products and brecciated material within the crater. The aim of this chapter is to describe the changes that occur within target materials and the physical processes that produce them during an impact event.