Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007agufm.p11b0539c&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #P11B-0539
Other
5420 Impact Phenomena, Cratering (6022, 8136), 5422 Ices, 5462 Polar Regions, 5470 Surface Materials And Properties
Scientific paper
Volatiles that may be present in permanently shadowed craters on Mercury and the Moon appear to be quite different from one another based on radar observations. Mercury appears to have relatively pure deposits buried beneath 20-30 cm of dry regolith. These deposits are thought to contain water ice, but other constituents are also possible. In contrast, if ice exists on the Moon, the observations indicate that it is buried, patchy, and/or not very pure. Although some radar data may be indicative of ice deposits on the Moon from Clementine, they are inconclusive regarding the contents of the cold traps because similar signals are found in locations where ice is not expected and may be due to blocky regolith. Neutron measurements indicate that if any lunar ice exists in the topmost meter, it is buried beneath ~10 cm dry regolith and has a concentration of around 0.5 - a few wt. %. Nonetheless, the distribution of volatiles within permanently shadowed regions on Mercury and the Moon is clearly quite different. We perform 2-D Monte Carlo modeling of the evolution of ice layers on the Moon over time due to impact gardening to examine the relationship between the coherence length and time. The model traces the water content as a function of depth in the lunar regolith in several columns of regolith at set spacing intervals. An initial column ice profile is assumed, for example reflecting ice layer(s) deposited by comets, for each regolith column. The program then simulates a series of impacts onto the region based on the crater frequency function. Each column is modified appropriately for each impact. We examine the ice profiles of the different regolith columns as a function of time, correlating ice thickness, peak concentration, depth, and total ice content over the lateral spacings of the columns. This provides an appropriate view of how well ice layers remain coherent as a function of time, initial thickness, initial concentration, and lateral distance. This information will aid in the interpretation of radar data of lunar ice deposits. We constrain the initial thickness of an ice layer as a function of age that would be consistent with the radar measurements of the Moon.
Crider Dana Hurley
Vondrak Richard R.
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