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Buried Impact Craters at Hesperia Planum, Mars

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Buried Impact Craters at Hesperia Planum, Mars 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2016) 2652.pdf BURIED IMPACT CRATERS AT HESPERIA PLANUM, MARS. P. G. Whitmore1 and H. V. Frey2, 1Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, 6560 Braddock Rd, Alexandria, VA 22312, [email protected], 2Planetary Geodynamics Lab, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, [email protected]. Summary: Analysis of quasi-circular depressions Viking MDIMs were assumed to be buried impact (QCDs) in Mare Tyrrhenum indicates that the center of craters. Figure 2 shows the distribution of craters over Hesperia Planum is more deeply buried than the the range of diameters observed, as in [6]. MOLA data boundary. were used to find the depths of the freshest craters in Introduction: Circular features not detected in all three regions, using an average of several profiles visible images are apparent in Mars Orbital Laser (e.g., Figure 3) to obtain each measurement. Figure 4 Altimeter (MOLA) data. These Quasi-Circular shows the relationship between crater diameter and Depressions (QCDs) appear to be buried impact craters depth for each region. [1, 2, 3]. QCDs have been used to date significant events in the evolution of the Martian surface [1], study the dichotomy between the northern lowlands and southern highlands [2], and identify large impact basins not evident in visible images [3]. Here we analyze four specific QCD populations to map the distribution of material covering Hesperia Planum. Mare Tyrrhenum QCDs: The Mare Tyrrhenum quadrangle is located between 225° and 270° west and 0° to 30° south. It includes parts of three regions, from west to east: Tyrrhena Terra, Hesperia Planum, and Terra Cimmeria [5]. We used stretched, contoured topographic data to identify crater populations in all Figure 2. Crater counts for Mare Tyrrhenum. The three regions, as shown in Figure 1. power-law regression for Cimmeria, Tyrrhena, and buried Hesperia craters is nearly the same, with a slope of around -2.2. The production function for visible craters in Hesperia is significantly damped, presumably due to resurfacing, with a slope of -2.384: identical to the Cimmeria/Tyrrhena power-law within Tyrrhena the margin of error. Cimmeria Hesperia Figure 3. Profile of a fresh crater in Tyrrhena Terra, about 75 km in diameter and 2.1 km deep. Note the Figure 1. Several hundred impact craters and QCDs well-defined rim and lack of fill around the central were identified in each region. Tyrrhena and Cimmeria peak. populations are plotted in black, and Hesperia is plotted in white. All craters and QCDs larger than 15 km in diameter were mapped in all three regions, and visible features were identified using image data. Rings not apparent in 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2016) 2652.pdf Figure 4. Crater diameter vs. depth for Cimmeria, Tyrrhena, and Hesperia (visible craters only). Error bars are the standard deviation of all the depth measurements taken of each crater. Preliminary Results: On the basis of the similarity between the Tyrrhena and Cimmeria curves in Figure 3, the most pristine group of craters in Tyrrhena and Cimmeria was used to derive the trendlines in Figure 5. At low diameters (D < 30 km) clustering was observed, similar to the division of small (D < 15 km) craters into “shallow” and “deep” groups identified by [4]. The trendlines were used to determine a predicted Figure 5. Cover depth in craters at Hesperia depth for each crater profiled in Hesperia, based on its Planum, including both visible craters and QCDs. The diameter as obtained from MOLA topographical data. top image shows the depth anomaly for each individual The actual depth for each crater was found using an crater. The bottom image is a contour plot of the same average of several profiles, and the difference (depth data, made with Matplotlib. anomaly) between the values was calculated. Figure 5 Though the craters are not uniformly distributed visualizes the depth anomaly of each crater in and do not give continuous coverage of the surface of Hesperia, with cover depth increasing from blue to red. Hesperia, craters toward the center of the region appear to be more filled-in than craters near the edge. This may be because there are many more visible (i.e., un- filled) craters than QCDs in either Tyrrhena or Cimmeria than in Hesperia, where only about 10% of the rings identified in MOLA data are visible in Viking MDIMs. Depth anomalies were not observed to be greater surrounding the volcano Tyrrhenus Mons (21.36°S, 253.47°W). References: [1] Frey, H. V. (2006) JGR (Planets), 111, E08S91. [2] Frey, H. V. et al. (2002) GRL, 29, 22- 1–21-4. [3] Frey, H. V. et al. (1999) GRL, 26, 1657– 1660. [4] Mouginis-Mark, P. J. and Hayashi, J. N. (1991) Reports of Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program, 370–372. [5] Mest, S. C. et al. (2012) LPS XLIII, Abstract #2268. [6] Hartmann, W. K. (1999), Meteoritics & Planet. Sci., 34, 167–177. .
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