The TanDEM-X digital elevation model (DEM), generated by the TanDEM-X mission, provides a unique opportunity for studying the topography and morphology of terrestrial impact structures. In the TanDEM-X mission, the two Earth-orbiting X-band radar satellites TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X are operated in close formation to act as a single-pass interferometer. Interferometric processing of the acquired data yields a global DEM with unprecedented accuracy of better than 4 m and a spatial resolution of 12 m. We investigate how the TanDEM-X DEM can be used for mapping terrestrial impact structures by applying it to the confirmed impact craters in the Earth Impact Database of the Planetary and Space Science Centre at the University of New Brunswick, Canada. The majority of these structures show distinct topographic signatures. Particularly prominent are medium-sized eroded craters. We provide representative elevation and X-band amplitude maps for a sample of the Earth Impact Database entries.

The Boltysh meteorite impact crater formed in the Ukrainian Shield on the margin of the Tethys Ocean a few thousand years before the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary and was rapidly filled by a freshwater lake. Sediments filling the lake vary from early lacustrine turbidites and silts to ~300 m of fine silts, organic carbon–rich muds, oil shales, and lamenites that record early Danian terrestrial climate signals at high temporal resolution. Combined carbon isotope and palynological data show that the fine-grained organic carbon–rich lacustrine sediments preserve a uniquely complete and detailed negative carbon isotope excursion in an expanded section of several hundred meters. The position of the carbon isotope excursion in the early Danian stage of the Paleogene period, around 200 k.y. above the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, leads us to correlate it to the Dan-C2 carbon isotope excursion recorded in marine sediments of the same age. The more complete Boltysh carbon isotope excursion record indicates a δ 13 C shift of around -3‰, but also a more extended recovery period, strikingly similar in pattern to the highest fidelity carbon isotope excursion records available for the Toarcian and Paleocene-Eocene hyperthermal events. Changes in floral communities through the carbon isotope excursion recorded at Boltysh reflect changing biomes caused by rapidly warming climate, followed by recovery, indicating that this early Danian hyperthermal event had a similar duration to the Toarcian and Paleocene-Eocene events.