THE KOTUIKAN RING STRUCTURE AS POSSIBLE EVIDENCE FOR A LARGE IMPACT EVENT IN THE NORTHERN SIBERIAN CRATON
Remote-sensing, cosmogeological, tectonic, geophysical, structural, compositional, isotopic, and geochronological criteria permit identifying the Kotuikan ring structure in the northern Siberian Platform as a Paleoproterozoic large astrobleme, close in age to the Vredefort and Sudbury impact structures. Also, indirect evidence for two more large impact structures was obtained here. This confirms widely hypothesized massive bombardment of the early Earth by asteroids and a possible effect of large impact events on the Earth’s mantle dynamics and rotation regime, that is, the tectonic evolution of our planet, including plate tectonics.