Summary
I am a post-doctoral researcher investigating the process of impact cratering. In particular, I study the formation of complex impact structures, so called because they exhibit central-peaks and/or peak-rings.
I am interested in the mechanism that allows these structures to form. The collapse of large impact craters to form central-peaks and peak-rings is inconsistent with our understanding of the static strength properties of rocks, instead the crater-forming rocks must undergo significant, and transient, weakening. The underlying mechanism of this weakening is poorly understood.
To solve this problem, I employ observational techniques, both geological and geophysical, combined with numerical impact models.
Research Interests
- Impact cratering
- Structural geology
- Rock mechanics
- Shock metamorphism
- Petrology and petrography of impactites
- Dynamical impact modelling
- Geophysics
Biography
2018 - now: Imperial College London - Post Doc
2014 - 2018: Imperial College London (PhD): The Kinematics and Dynamics of Complex Crater Collapse
2010 - 2014: Cambridge University (MSci, BA)
Teaching
- Impact Cratering - 2 lectures
- Dynamic Earth - 3 lectures
- Solar System Geoscience
- Applied Geophysics
- Earth Materials
- Optical Mineralogy and Petrology
- Igneous and Metamorphic Processes
- Igneous I
- Igneous II
- Solid Earth Geochemistry
- Structural Geology I
- Sedimentary Geology
- Field Geology III (Kinlochleven & Assynt, Scotland)
- Graphics and Statistics for Geoscientists
Associated researchers
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Riller U, Poelchau MH, Rae A, et al., 2018, Rock fluidization during peak-ring formation of large impact structures, Nature, Vol:562, ISSN:0028-0836, Pages:511-518
Rae A, Collins GS, Grieve RAF, et al., 2017, Complex crater formation: Insights from combining observations of shock pressure distribution with numerical models at the West Clearwater Lake impact structure, Meteoritics & Planetary Science, Vol:52, ISSN:1086-9379, Pages:1330-1350
Morgan JV, Gulick SPS, Bralower T, et al., 2016, The formation of peak rings in large impact craters, Science, Vol:354, ISSN:0036-8075, Pages:878-882