impacts and erosion 14 september 2015. four basic geological processes impact cratering –impacts...
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Impacts and Erosion
14 September 2015
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Four Basic Geological Processes• Impact cratering
– Impacts by asteroids or comets
• Volcanism– Eruption of molten rock
onto surface
• Tectonics– Disruption of a planet’s
surface by internal stresses
• Erosion– Surface changes made by
wind, water, or ice
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Possible Subduction and Crustal Recycling on Europa
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Impact Cratering
High kinetic energy of impacting object
Excavation
Heat
Shape round for all impact directions
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Crater Morphology:• Impactor in the inner
solar system can have 10s of km/sec relative velocity
• May vaporize or liquefy a significant amount of the target for a large impactor
• “Simple” craters are bowl shaped
• “Complex” craters are flatter, and have a central uplift or peak
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Meteor Crater (Arizona)Meteor Crater (Arizona)
Tycho (Moon)Tycho (Moon)
Impact Craters
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The Impact Process1. Detonation - shockwave propagates through
target, projectile vaporized
2. Excavation - target is heated, vaporized, liquified, solid material is ejected (possibly above escape velocity!)
3. Rebound - in larger craters, the target may “bounce back” viscously, forming a central uplift
4. Relaxation - crater walls subside, melt pools in the crater
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Few Hundred Confirmed Craters on Earth
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Meteor CraterMeteor Crater
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Ariel view of Meteor Crater
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Manicouigan CraterCrater Lake
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Moon Near SideMoon’sGiant Basins
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Moon Far SideLunarFarside
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Lunar Highlands
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Mare Imbrium
Lunar Mare
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Crater modification
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Mars Rampart Crater 3MarsRampartCrater
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Venus Craters 1
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Ganymede Crater Chain
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Shoemaker-Levy 9
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SL-9 Aftermath
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HyperionHyperion
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Erosion and Deposition• Erosion and deposition require the
presence of a fluid (gas or liquid) to pick up, transport and deposit surface material
• Liquid transport more efficient• These processes tend to be rapid
compared to other geological processes• So surface appearance is often controlled
by these processes• Earth, Mars, Titan, Venus have erosional
or sedimentary features
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Aeolian Features (Mars)• Wind is an important process on Mars at the present day
(e.g. Viking seismometers . . .)• Dust re-deposited over a very wide area (so the surface of
Mars appears to have a very homogenous composition)• Occasionally get global dust-storms (hazardous for
spacecraft)• Rates of deposition/erosion almost unknown
30km
Image of a dustdevil caught inthe act
Martian dune features
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Aeolian features (elsewhere)Namib desert, Earthfew km spacing
Yardangs (elongated dunes)Mead crater, Venus
Longitudinal dunes, Earth (top),Titan (bottom), ~ 1 km spacing
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Wind directionsVenus
Wind streaks, Venus
Global patterns of wind direction can be compared with general circulation models (GCM’s)
Mars (crater diameter 90m)
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Fluvial features• Valley networks on Mars• Only occur on ancient
terrain (~4 Gyr old)• What does this imply
about ancient Martian atmosphere?
30 km
• Valley network on Titan• Presumably formed by
methane runoff• What does this imply about
Titan climate and surface?
100 km
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• Large-scale fluvial features, indicating massive (liquid) flows, comparable to ocean currents on Earth
• Morphology similar to giant post-glacial floods on Earth
• Spread throughout Martian history, but concentrated in the first 1-2 Gyr of Martian history
• Source of water unknown – possibly ice melted by volcanic eruptions (jokulhaups)?
Martian Outflow channels
50km
flowdirection
150km
Baker (2001)
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Martian Gullies• A very unexpected discovery
(Malin & Edgett, Science 283, 2330-2335, 2000)
• Found predominantly at high latitudes (>30o), on pole-facing slopes, and shallow (~100m below surface)
• Inferred to be young – cover young features like dunes and polygons
• How do we explain them? Liquid water is not stable at the surface!
• Maybe even active at present day?
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Lakes
Titan, 30km across
Gusev, Mars150km
Clearwater Lakes Canada~30km diameters
Titan lakes are (presumably) methane/ethaneGusev crater shows little evidence for water, based on Mars Rover data
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Erosion• Erosion will remove small, near-surface craters• But it may also expose (exhume) craters that were
previously buried• Erosion has recently been recognized as a major
process on Mars, but the details are still extremely poorly understood
• The images below show examples of fluvial features which have been exhumed
Malin and Edgett, Science 2003
meander
channel
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Sediments in outcrop
Opportunity (Meridiani)
Cross-bedding indicative of prolonged fluid flows