Physics
Scientific paper
May 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agusm...p41b04h&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2001, abstract #P41B-04
Physics
1886 Weathering (1625), 3210 Modeling, 5415 Erosion And Weathering, 6250 Moon (1221)
Scientific paper
A numerical model has been developed to simulate the degradational evolution of lunar impact craters. Meteoritic bombardment is generally considered to be the primary source of erosion on the lunar surface. This repetitive bombardment by small particles and secondary fragments produces individual effects that are small compared to topographic scale and this steady erosional process modifies crater shape as a function of time. The net result of this impact erosion is a smoothing of the lunar surface in a linearly-diffusive manner of degradation. The erosion model consists of a linear diffusion-equation algorithm expressed in finite-difference form that operates upon a grid of elevation values (digital elevation model or DEM) depicting the three-dimensional topography of a small lunar impact crater. Morphometry for this model crater was derived from Pike (USGS Prof. Pap. 1046-C, 1980). Class 1 (fresh, n=131) and class 2 (more degraded, n=17) craters within the rim-crest diameter range of 1 to 15 km were the focus of this study. For class 1 craters, mean diameter was 8.01 km, mean d/D (depth/diameter ratio) was 0.202, and mean of the average slope of the interior wall was 23.9 degrees. These morphometric and geometric parameters, combined with digitization and rasterization, were utilized to construct the digital elevation model of a typical, fresh lunar impact crater. Simulation results demonstrate the progressive erosional modifications of the classic bowl-shaped craterform: rounding of the crater rim, decrease of crater rim height, gradual crater infilling, decrease in crater depth, and decline of the slope angle of the interior crater wall. Topographic profiles extracted at key time steps display this degradational evolution. The older, more degraded class 2 craters can be correlated with numerical model results. Class 2 craters have a mean d/D of 0.172 and a mean of the average slope of the interior wall of 20.3 degrees. This calibration provides a rough estimate of the rate of transport or erosion.
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