Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Sep 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.3008c&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #30.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.539
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
The ability to determine the relative ages of surface features imaged from spacecraft is vital to understanding the geologic histories of solid planetary bodies within our solar system. Historically the relative ages of surface features have primarily been inferred through impact crater counting studies. However, one may also directly infer relative ages based on the visible superposition relationships of intersecting geological features. This technique is particularly well suited to the icy satellites of the outer solar system, especially Europa, where linear features having many intersections are plentiful, and crater density is low. With potentially hundreds of features, having thousands of intersections, datasets quickly become too large to be effectively sorted by hand. We have developed an algorithm which allows a computer to assist in the temporal sorting of digitally mapped features based on their cross-cutting relationships.
Digitally mapped features and their crosscutting relationships are represented as a graph, on which we perform a modified topologic sort; high confidence cyclical crosscutting relationships are resolved by assuming pre-existing features may experience re-activation. The algorithm allows the identification of those portions of a feature most likely to have re-activated, and also allows quantification of the confidence in each feature's location in the inferred temporal ordering. Portions of features which appear to have experienced re-activation are separated and then sorted as individual features in order to determine their last time of activity. The method is validated using synthetic datasets with known formation histories, which are statistically similar to the intended study regions.
We apply the method to the Galileo E15 REGMAP01 and E17 NORPLN01 image mosaics of Europa to extract relative times of formation (or last activity) for 100 lineaments. By assuming they were formed by tensile failure, a history of greatest tensile stress orientations can be inferred.
Collins Geoffrey
Crawford Zane A.
Gleason D.
Pappalardo Robert T.
Weller Manfred
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