Galileo imaging observations of lunar maria and related deposits

Greeley, R.; Kadel, S. D.; Williams, D. A.; Gaddis, L. R.; Head, J. W.; McEwen, A. S.; Murchie, S. L.; Nagel, Engelbert; Neukum, G.; Pieters, C. M.; Sunshine, J. M.; Wagner, Roland; Belton, M. J. S.

doi:10.1029/93je01000

Cited by 94 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…In previous analyses [Li et al, 1996], an image-based spectral mixture modeling was used in the investigation of the southern edge of the Grimaldi basin. Critical evaluation of results from both linear and nonlinear mixture modeling methods maldi have mafic assemblages dominated by high-Ca pyroxenes and exhibit TiO 2 abundances of 2-3%, while the primary ejecta deposits of the Grimaldi basin are dominated by noritic anorthosite and anorthositic norite [Hawke et al, 1991;Greeley et al, 1993;Peterson et al, 1995]. While the mare age varies across the Grimaldi basin , Williams et al, 1995, the age for the region of our study is estimated to be 3.25 Ga by Greeley et al [1993] and 3.12 Ga by Williams et al [ 1995].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compositional gradients across mare‐highland contacts: Importance and geological implication of lateral transport

Li¹,

Mustard²

2000

J. Geophys. Res.

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Observations of mixing across mare-highland contacts using high-resolution Clementine data allow a new assessment of the relative importance of vertical versus lateral mass transport on the Moon at least at mare-highland contact. We analyze mare-highland contacts in the Grimaldi, Orientale, and Fecunditatis basins and Tsiolkovsky crater through image-based nonlinear spectral mixture modeling of Clementine ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) light spectrometer multispectral data. The mare in these regions differ in ages, but they are characterized by having simple geological contacts. The symmetric distribution of mare and highland soil constituents across their geological contact indicates that lateral transport is more efficient than deep vertical transport during the formation of the observed mixing zones. Observations across the lunar limb with the Clementine UV-VIS filters show that there is a stray light component of scattered light across high-contrast albedo boundaries. However, the magnitude and spatial properties of scattered light do not significantly affect the nature of compositional boundaries determined here. Since repetitive meteorite bombardment governs lateral transport across the geological contacts and is a random process, a stochastic model is developed to describe this lateral transport. Analysis of the power decay law for crater ejecta thickness indicates that the high-velocity ejecta travels long distances and follows a -3 power decay law. This results in an infinite variance, which requires an anomalous diffusion model since a classical diffusion model would be invalid. Mathematical modeling supports this result where it is shown that classical diffusion produces a relatively poor fit to profiles of material abundance, while the anomalous diffusion model fits the profiles adequately. These results indicate that high-velocity ejecta dominates the formation of the observed compositional gradients, while the ejecta near the crater rim is relatively less important. On the basis of these ejecta distributions and the assumption of random impact cratering, we derive a relationship that can be used as an index for relative age dating of geological contacts as well as for investigating cratering rates.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compositional gradients across mare‐highland contacts: Importance and geological implication of lateral transport

Li¹,

Mustard²

2000

J. Geophys. Res.

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“…The "Nestingphoto technique" (Basaltic Volcanism Study Project, 1981) is not recommended in counting small craters, either. Despite the warning given by Basaltic Volcanism Study Project (1981), use of small craters for detailed dating appears to be widely accepted (e.g., Greeley et al, 1993;Neukum and Ivanov, 1994;Hartmann et al, 1999, Hartmann andBerman, 2000). Unless new evidence for the primary production hypothesis is found, we should use only large craters in the crater chronology.…”

Section: Elimination Of the Primary Crater Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If the crater size-frequency distribution in the lunar maria is simply indicating that of the projectile (Neukum and Wise, 1976;Neukum and Ivanov, 1994;Chapman et al, 1996), the value of α necessarily corresponds to the eruption age of the mare basalt. Naturally α in the steep-slope segment can be applied to crater chronology and would be extremely useful to estimate the age of so small an area that only a few craters larger than 4 km exist (Greeley et al, 1993;Hartmann et al, 1999;Hartmann and Berman, 2000). We wish to test this hypothesis from a comparison of radiometric ages with the α values of the steep slope segment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since high-resolution lunar images became available after Apollo and Lunar Orbiter spacecraft, there has been a controversy among these hypotheses (e.g., Basaltic Volcanism Study Project, 1981). While the cause of the steepening remains unsolved, small craters are widely used to estimate a surface age (e.g., Greeley et al, 1993;Neukum and Ivanov, 1994;Hartmann et al, 1999, Hartmann andBerman, 2000) on the basis of the primary production hypothesis (Neukum and Wise, 1976;Neukum and Ivanov, 1994;Chapman et al, 1996). An advantage of large number of small crater increases as images taken by the future lunar explorations, such as Japanese LUNAR-A (Mizutani, 1995) and SELENE (Sasaki et al, 1999), are expected to achieve higher resolution than previous ones.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Testing hypotheses for the origin of steep slope of lunar size-frequency distribution for small craters

Namiki

Honda

2014

Earth Planet Sp

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The crater size-frequency distribution of lunar maria is characterized by the change in slope of the population between 0.3 and 4 km in crater diameter. The origin of the steep segment in the distribution is not well understood. Nonetheless, craters smaller than a few km in diameter are widely used to estimate the crater retention age for areas so small that the number of larger craters is statistically insufficient. Future missions to the moon, which will obtain high resolution images, will provide a new, large data set of small craters. Thus it is important to review current hypotheses for their distributions before future missions are launched. We examine previous and new arguments and data bearing on the admixture of endogenic and secondary craters, horizontal heterogeneity of the substratum, and the size-frequency distribution of the primary production function. The endogenic crater and heterogeneous substratum hypotheses are seen to have little evidence in their favor, and can be eliminated. The primary production hypothesis fails to explain a wide variation of the size-frequency distribution of Apollo panoramic photographs. The secondary craters are likely the major source of the steepening of the distribution. It is ambiguous, however, which primary craters can produce sufficiently numerous secondary craters. The regional variation of the sizefrequency distributions shows that few large impacts produce enough secondary craters to affect the distributions in the surrounding area. We emphasize that a crater size-frequency distribution of small craters on the moon should not be taken as an indication of the surface age. More data obtained from future lunar missions should be viewed in this context, and continued to be examined for further insight into the possible formation mechanism for secondary craters.

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“…However, the CSFD for D > 500 m gives a model age of ∼3.7 Ga. The deflection of the CSFD, generating two distinct model ages, can be associated with a possible resurfacing event (e.g., Neukum and Horn, 1976;Greeley et al, 1993;Hiesinger et al, 2002;Wagner et al, 2002;Michael and Neukum, 2007). In our interpretation, the southern unit has been resurfaced by a basaltic eruption at 3.4-3.5 Ga, where the erupted lava flow did not completely obliterate pre-existing craters on a deposit formed at ∼3.7 Ga.…”

Section: Lacus Luxuriaementioning

confidence: 99%

Timing and duration of mare volcanism in the central region of the northern farside of the Moon

et al. 2011

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Age determinations of lunar mare basalts are essential for understanding the thermal evolution of the Moon. In this study, we performed new crater size-frequency measurements in mare deposits in the central region of the northern farside, consisting of Lacus Luxuriae, Buys-Ballot, Campbell, and Kohlschütter, using high-resolution images obtained by SELENE (Kaguya) Terrain Camera. The estimated model ages of the mare deposits range from 2.7 to 3.5 Ga. On the basis of model ages for all investigated mare deposits in the central part of the northern farside, considering the results of previous studies, we concluded that mare volcanism in this region began at least as early as 3.9 Ga and continued until ∼2.6 Ga. From a comparison of model ages in the region and the South Pole-Aitken basin, we found that mare volcanism in these regions ended at the same time, suggesting that the South Pole-Aitken basin formation impact had a minor effect on mare volcanism in the region.

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Galileo imaging observations of lunar maria and related deposits

Cited by 94 publications

References 42 publications

Compositional gradients across mare‐highland contacts: Importance and geological implication of lateral transport

Compositional gradients across mare‐highland contacts: Importance and geological implication of lateral transport

Testing hypotheses for the origin of steep slope of lunar size-frequency distribution for small craters

Timing and duration of mare volcanism in the central region of the northern farside of the Moon

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