Shock metamorphism records the transient, extreme pressures and temperatures generated by hypervelocity impacts. It bridges microscale deformation features and macroscale cratering events and serves as one of the most diagnostic tools for recognizing impact structures across the Solar System.
The field has been rapidly advanced by the convergence of several recent advances. Returned samples from Chang’e-5 and Chang’e-6 (Moon), Hayabusa2 (Ryugu), and OSIRIS-REx (Bennu) are revealing new complexity in shock-induced mineral alteration and impact chronology. Dynamic high-pressure techniques can now replicate key aspects of natural impact P–T–t paths at the nanosecond scale. Multiscale numerical modelling is quantitatively linking microscale mineral deformation to macroscale crater formation in complex planetary environments.
These developments have sharpened several fundamental questions:
- How do impactor size, velocity, and target lithology and stucture control the thresholds and kinetics of shock-induced phase transformations?
- What information do high-pressure polymorphs and shock microstructures encode about the excavation and ejection history of planetary materials?
- How can experimental data, microstructural observations, and numerical simulations be better integrated to establish robust shock pressure calibrations?
- What are the atomic-scale mechanisms of shock-induced amorphization, defect generation, and high-pressure polymorph formation in common rock-forming minerals?
- How are shock features preserved or altered during post-impact thermal and chemical processing?
To address these challenges, this Thematic Issue highlights the current state of knowledge in shock metamorphism and aims to foster cross-disciplinary dialogue among experimentalists, sample analysts, modellers, and planetary geologists. Contributions that integrate multiple approaches are particularly encouraged—for example, studies that couple shock-recovery experiments with numerical simulations, or investigations that link meteorite shock features with remote-sensing data of parent-body surfaces. The intention is to refine petrological recorders of shock, improve the fidelity of impact models, and extend the applicability of shock metamorphism as a tool for understanding planetary evolution, resource distribution, and impact processing, and planetary surface modification.
Topics of Interest (non-exhaustive)
- Shock wave experiments and simulations
Dynamic compression studies using light-gas guns, high-power lasers, Z-pinch platforms, and pulsed-power facilities; complementary hydrocode and multiphysics simulations (iSALE, CTH, SPH, ANSYS AUTODYN) replicating planetary impact conditions.
- Shock features in returned samples and meteorites
Petrographic, mineralogical, and geochemical characterization of shock-induced microstructures, high-pressure polymorphs (coesite, stishovite, seifertite, reidite, diamond, ringwoodite, bridgmanite), melt veins, and impact glass; implications for parent-body collisional histories and regolith evolution.
- Planetary impact crater studies
Morphological, structural, stratigraphic, and geophysical analyses of terrestrial, lunar, Martian, and small-body impact craters; remote-sensing investigations of fresh craters coupled with geophysical constraints (e.g., InSight seismic data).
- Numerical modelling of impact cratering
Advances in multi-physics simulations of crater formation, shock wave propagation, ejecta dynamics, and post-impact thermal evolution and modification.
- Atomic-scale mechanisms of mineral phase transformations
DFT, molecular dynamics, and in-situ experimental studies (FIB-TEM, Raman spectroscopy, atom probe tomography) of shock-induced phase changes, amorphization, and defect evolution in silicates, oxides, and planetary analogue materials.
- Shock barometry and thermochronology
Calibration and application of shock pressure indicators and isotopic chronometers to constrain impact conditions and timing.
- Shock effects in regolith and breccia
Impact processing of granular materials, shock lithification, and the generation of agglutinates and impact melts on airless bodies.
- Terrestrial impact structures and interdisciplinary applications
Diagnostic shock features (shatter cones, planar deformation features, impact melts) in well-preserved terrestrial craters; links between large impacts, planetary habitability, climate perturbation, and extreme materials synthesis.
Studies that integrate two or more of these themes are especially encouraged.
Submission Information
All submitted manuscripts will undergo the journal’s standard rigorous peer-review process. Authors are requested to prepare manuscripts according to the
Planet author guidelines, available at
https://journal.hep.com.cn/planet/EN/guidelines , and to submit via the online submission system at
https://planetauthor.manuscriptcloud.com/, selecting the Thematic issue “Shock Metamorphism” during the submission process.
This Thematic Issue is expected to assemble a high-quality collection that captures the vitality and interdisciplinarity of contemporary shock metamorphism research. Submissions from the global scientific community are warmly encouraged.
Guest Editors
Runlian PANG
Associate Professor
Research Center for Planetary Science, Chengdu University of Technology
Email: pangrunlian@cdut.edu.cn
Jing YANG
Associate Professor
Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Email: yang-jing@mail.gyig.ac.cn
Key Dates
| Manuscript submission deadline |
30 September 2026 |
| Target first decision |
31 October 2026 |
| Revised manuscript deadline |
20 November 2026 |
| Final acceptance |
30 November 2026 |
| Planned publication |
December 2026 (Volume 2, Issue 4) |