ORGANIZER

Universities Space Research Association (USRA)

INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT

Canadian Lunar Research Network

Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation

(CEMI)

Geological Association of Canada

Planetary Sciences Division

Laurentian University

University of Western Ontario

The Barringer Crater Company

CONVENERS

 

Gordon R. Osinski

University of Western Ontario

 

David A. Kring

USRA-Lunar and Planetary Institute

SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

 

Ulrich Riller

Universität Hamburg

 

James E. Mungall

University of Toronto

 

C. Michael Lesher

Laurentian University

 

Joe Petrus

Laurentian University

 

Peter Lightfoot

Vale, Copper Cliff

 

Livio Tornabene

University of Western Ontario

 

Kai Wünnemann

Museum für Naturkunde-Leibniz Institute

 

Final Announcement — June 2013

Meeting Location and Date

The Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution V meeting will be returning the series to Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, following the Meteoritical Society meeting, which is being held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The meeting will be held at the Laurentian University, 935 Ramsey Lake Road, Sudbury, ON P3E 2C6 on August 5–8, 2013. An opening reception will be held at Dynamic Earth on August 4, featuring Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, the last person to walk on the Moon. Field trips are planned for August 4 and 9 and a short course on modeling impact processes will occur on August 9 and 10. More information about the field trips and short course is provided below.

Sudbury is one of the world's premier Ni-Cu mining districts, a significant PGE producer, and one of the oldest, largest, and best-exposed meteorite impact sites on Earth. The City of Greater Sudbury, the largest city in northeastern Ontario, lies amid glacially shaped ridges and green boreal forests, and contains over 200 lakes. The Sudbury Tourism website provides an excellent source of information on what to do and see in and around the Sudbury area.

Introduction

The process of impact cratering, its planetary effects, and its environmental implications have been the subject of four previous LMI conferences, which were hosted, respectively, in Sudbury, Canada (1992 and 1997); Nördlingen, Germany (2003); and the Vredefort Dome area in South Africa (2008). Since LMI IV, several major international drilling and field projects of terrestrial impact structures, as well as new spacecraft missions to the Moon, neighboring planets, asteroids, and comets, have begun to deliver important new insights into cratering processes within the solar system. LMI V will provide a forum for discussion of these results as well as recent advances based on experimental and numerical simulation studies.

Purpose and Scope

Potential topics include:

• Large Impact Basins: Their Formation, Structure, and Environmental Effects
• Model and Experimental Insights Into Cratering Processes
• Geochronology of Impact Events
• Case Study of the Sudbury Structure II
• Complex Impact Craters:  Their Formation and Structure
• Impact Cratering on Mars
• Impactites:  From Proximal to Distal
  
  

Meeting Format

The conference will be dominated by contributed oral and poster presentations, although a small number of invited presentations are included to help frame the issues to be explored. The schedule has been organized to promote discussion among meeting participants, so that meaningful dialogue and (ideally) consensus is developed.

For more details about the structure of the conference, refer to the detailed program and abstracts. To find out when a particular abstract has been scheduled, view the author index.

Presentations

Oral presentations will be held in the Fraser Auditorium at Laurentian University, 935 Ramsey Lake Road (Building #4 on the Sudbury campus map). Poster presentations will be held upstairs in the Alumni Hall. Free parking is available in the P1 parking lot in front of the Fraser Auditorium.

Oral Presentations

A PC laptop, LCD projector, and speaker remote will be available for presentation of oral presentations during the scientific sessions. In order to facilitate a smooth transition between speakers, all presentations will be preloaded and tested in advance. To aid the preloading process, create a folder on your flash drive/CD called “LMIV 2013” and place your PowerPoint presentation in that folder. Please include your last name in the naming of your presentation file. An IT technician will be available each morning in Room 181 during the morning and afternoon coffee breaks, during the lunch break, and in the afternoon from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m to assist in loading your talk. For morning talks, please ensure your talk is uploaded by 5:30 p.m the previous day, and for afternoon talks, please have your talk loaded by the time of the morning coffee break.

Hardware and Software Specifications —
The plenary room will be equipped with the following minimum hardware and software:

Opening Reception

The Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) welcomes delegates of the Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution V Conference to an opening reception on Sunday, August 4, at Sudbury's Dynamic Earth. The guest of honor at the reception will be Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, the last person to walk on the Moon! Please join us for cocktails beginning at 6:00 p.m., where you will dine on delectable appetizers and enjoy live entertainment, underground tours, and more while enjoying a unique setting that is home to the Big Nickel. Start off the conference with a bang by networking with colleagues, conference organizers, and speakers. Transportation to and from the event will be provided from the two conference hotels and the student residence (see below). Don't miss out on a spectacular evening. Space is limited, so register early.

Scientific Excursions

Two field trips will be offered, one on the Sunday before the conference and the other on the Friday following the conference. The first will provide an overview of the Sudbury impact structure and is suitable for all. This trip will involve very little hiking. The second field trip will focus on the impact melts and breccias of the so-called offset dykes. This will be a smaller, more specialized field trip with a focus on discussion among participants, and involves short hikes of up to 1 km. Both trips are being sponsored by the Planetary Sciences Division of the Geological Association of Canada.

Pre-Conference Field Trip:  Impact Rocks of the Sudbury Impact Structure

When:  Sunday, August 4, 2013
Leaders:  U. Riller (Universität Hamburg) and G. Osinski (University of Western Ontario)
Cost:  $105.00 (includes lunch, ground transportation, guide materials, and insurance)
Departs:  Travelodge Hotel, Sudbury (see location below), 7:30 a.m.
Returns:  Travelodge Hotel, Sudbury, 4:30 p.m. — in time for the opening reception
Maximum:  40 participants
The Sudbury Basin, the central portion of the Sudbury impact structure, offers unique and well-preserved surface exposures of impact-generated rocks of the second-largest crater known on Earth. These rocks will be examined on a traverse across the Sudbury Basin. Highlights of the field trip include outcrops of the 1.85-Ga Sudbury Igneous Complex, encompassing the melt sheet of the impact structure and associated impact melt dykes, known as offset dykes, and shatter cones. The field trip will also feature various impact melt breccia bodies found in target rocks (the so-called “Sudbury Breccia”), at the base and overlying the melt sheet (the so-called “Sublayer” and Onaping Formation, respectively). Collectively, these breccia bodies have been the subject of recent scientific controversy regarding their emplacement mechanisms. Students, professionals, and non-geologists are encouraged to participate on this field trip.

Post-Conference Field Trip:  The Impact Melts and Breccias of the Offset Structures of the Sudbury Igneous Complex

When:  Friday, August 9, 2013
Leaders:  P. Lightfoot (Brownfield Exploration, Vale) and J. Bailey (Exploration, Wallbridge Mining Company Limited)
Cost:  $105.00 (includes lunch, ground transportation, guide materials, and insurance)
Departs:  Travelodge Hotel, Sudbury (see location below), 7:30 a.m.
Returns:  Travelodge Hotel, Sudbury, 5:30 p.m.
Maximum:  24 participants
This trip will provide delegates an unparalleled opportunity to examine key outcrops along three different offset dykes of the 1.85-Ga Sudbury Igneous Complex. The dykes represent radial and concentric cracks in the footwall of the Sudbury Igneous Complex, along which impact melts have been injected. The offsets vary in known mineral endowment:  the Copper Cliff Offset hosts one of the giant ore bodies at Sudbury, the Worthington Offset contains one of the newest mines in the Sudbury Basin, and the Trill Offset represent a new discovery showcasing the opportunity for future exploration success at Sudbury. All three locations have world-class exposures of impact geology.

The field trip will provide surface access to key outcrop areas of the Copper Cliff Offset where contact relationships with country rocks can be examined in the environment of a primary discontinuity in the geometry of the offset. A second group of outcrops from the Worthington Offset illustrate the episodic emplacement of variably sulfide endowed magmatic breccias into the offsets. Outcrops of the Trill Offset show magmatic breccia hosted sulfide within anastomosing splays of the dyke with well-exposed contact relationships including sharp spherulitic chills and gradationally resorbed wall rock.

Participation is encouraged by those who share a common interest in understanding the process of melt generation and injection into dyke structures at the margins of impact melts, and who bring expert knowledge and understanding that will benefit the Sudbury exploration community. Industry staff from the companies operating the projects will be available at the outcrops to review the geology and answer questions.

Short Courses

Modeling Impact Processes with iSALE
When:  Friday, August 9, and Saturday, August 10
Where:  CEMI Training Room, 4th floor, Willet Green Miller Centre, 933 Ramsey Lake Rd.
Leaders:  G. Collins, D. Elbeshausen, and K. Wünnemann
Cost:  $80.00 (includes lunch and course materials)
Maximum:  30 participants
iSALE has become a widely used tool to model impact processes, including crater formation, shock wave propagation, and deformation. To improve the capabilities of the code we encourage users to participate in the further development of iSALE. This short course is aimed at existing iSALE users who would like to learn how to modify iSALE for their specific needs and solve problems, for instance, the implementation of new initial conditions or material models in iSALE itself or new post-processing analysis tools (plugins) for the VIMOD visualization software. The course will include short lectures on various development topics, supported by practical exercises, and will run for two days immediately after the conference. As some experience using iSALE is a prerequisite for this course, those interested in participating in this course should apply to join the iSALE user community prior to the meeting. Please visit the iSALE website for details.

Registration

Note that ALL fees listed in this announcement are in Canadian dollars.

Onsite registration will be available; however, we encourage you to register early.

To register:   ALL participants should first register using USRA’s secure electronic registration form.

Your confirmation page will direct you to the payment page

The payment page, maintained by the University of Western Ontario’s Conference Services, will include options to register for the scientific excursions, short course, airport shuttle, student housing, and to purchase guest tickets for select events. Registrations will not be considered complete until payment has been made.

Payment may be made by Visa or Mastercard. Payments by check should be sent to

The University of Western Ontario
c/o Jennifer Heidenheim
The University of Western Ontario
Dept Earth Sciences
1151 Richmond St.
London, ON
Canada
N6A 5B7

U.S. checks are acceptable, but note that because fees are listed in Canadian dollars, participants paying by check will be responsible for calculating the correct payment amount using the RBC Royal Bank foreign exchange currency converter.

Cancellations: Requests for cancellation with a fee refund (less a $25.00 processing fee) will only be accepted through July 26, 2013. Those who fail to attend and do not notify Jen Heidenheim prior to the July 26, 2013, deadline will forfeit their full fee.

Accommodations

A number of rooms have been reserved at two nearby hotels and in the student residence on the Laurentian University campus. Details are provided below. Participants are encouraged to book early as there are a number of other events in Sudbury during August and accommodation can be difficult to find. All the accommodations are within walking distance of the conference venue, although distances vary (see below). Shatter cones are abundant in the roadside outcrops all along the route to the venue!

Travelodge Hotel
Address:  1401 Paris St, Sudbury, ON P3E 3B6
Distance to venue:  3.3 km
Phone:  705-522-1100
Toll Free Number: 1-866-525-9155
Rooms and rates (+13% tax):  1 queen bed @ $115/night; 2 double beds @ $115/night; 1 queen bed + patio @ $122/night; two double beds + patio at $122/night; deluxe queen suite at $130/night
To get the conference rate, mention the Large Meteorite Conference when booking by phone.
Room block release deadline:  July 4, 2013

Travelway Inn
Address:  1200 Paris St, Sudbury, ON P3E 5V4
Distance to venue:  3.0 km
Phone:  1-800-461-4883
Rooms and rates (+13% tax):  two double beds at $119.99/night
To get the conference rate, mention the Large Meteorite Conference.
Room block release deadline:  July 4, 2013

Student Residence Accommodation:  East Residence, Laurentian University Campus
Address:  935 Ramsey Lake Rd, Sudbury ON, P3E 2C6
Distance to venue:  Less than 500 m
Accommodations in an apartment-style residence with four bedrooms/unit, two bathrooms, kitchen, and living room. The cost is $50/night + tax. This accommodation option will be a choice on the registration page, and this accommodation option MUST be selected when registering as a student for the meeting.

Travel Visas

Countries and territories whose citizens require visas in order to enter Canada as visitors are listed on at www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/visas.asp, while additional information regarding visas can be found at www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/index.asp.

Important:  If your travel itinerary involves passage through the U.S., even if you are just in transit and do not leave the airport, you will likely require a U.S. visa. Participants must make their own visa arrangements.

Area Maps

The following area maps are provided to assist with your travel plans:

Greater Sudbury Area
Central Sudbury Area
Map of the Laurentian University Campus

Additional information is available from the Sudbury Tourism website.

Transportation

Sudbury is ~400 km north of Toronto and ~450 km northwest of Ottawa. Depending on your budget and the amount of time you have, there are several travel options:

Air
Sudbury Airport (YSB) is served from Toronto's Pearson International Airport by Air Canada and Porter Airlines and from Ottawa by Bearskin Airlines. The Sudbury Airport is located on a Pleistocene river delta (the only suitable site among all the lakes and ridges) 3040 minutes from Laurentian University. Taxis cost ~$60.00 plus tip one-way and there is currently no airport shuttle or bus service. As part of the conference, we will be offering a pick-up and drop-off service for a cost of $20.00 one way on Saturday, August 3, Sunday, August 4, and Friday, August 9. Attendees interested in this option must select this during registration. Avis, Enterprise, and National also have car rental offices in the Sudbury airport.

Bus
There are regular Greyhound and Ontario Northland buses from Ottawa (~7–8 hours) and Toronto (~5 hours). The Toronto Bus Terminal is downtown, but there are connections from the terminal to and from the airport. The Sudbury Greyhound Bus Terminal is on Notre Dame Avenue on the north of downtown Sudbury, 10–15 minutes by car/taxi from the university and most of the prebooked accommodations. The Ontario Northland Bus Terminal is on the Kingsway in New Sudbury, 10–15 minutes by car/taxi from the university and most of the prebooked accommodations.

Rental Car
Driving time from Toronto (via Highways 400 and 69) is ~4.5 hours and driving time from Ottawa (via Highways 417 and 17) is ~5.5 hours. Both routes are partly divided four-lane (but not limited access) and partly two-lane with periodic passing lanes. Many parts are quite scenic and worth the drive if you have time. Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, National, and Thrifty have car rental offices in Sudbury.

Sponsorship Opportunities

Various levels of sponsorship opportunities, which can be beneficial to your company, are available for this event. Please see the LMIV Sponsorship Package for details.

Contacts

For information regarding the format and scientific objectives of the conference, contact

For information regarding meeting details or announcements, contact

Ingrid Dudley
USRA Houston
Phone:  281-486-2151
E-mail:  [email protected]

For information regarding abstract submission or registration, contact

Linda Tanner
USRA Houston
Phone:  281-486-2142
E-mail:  [email protected]

Schedule