Other
Scientific paper
Oct 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011epsc.conf.1587k&link_type=abstract
EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011, held 2-7 October 2011 in Nantes, France. http://meetings.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2011, p.1587
Other
Scientific paper
Earth's Moon is the only solar system body for which we have both crater size-frequency distributions (SFDs) and ages of known terrains. These are keystones for understanding the impact rate through time. While there has been previous work attempting to constrain the lunar impact rate through time [e.g., 1, 2-4], these efforts are decades old. We have lately begun compiling crater SFDs for Birkhoff, Imbrium, and Orientale basins to understand the evolution of the impactor populations [5]. Our preliminary SFD results, plotted in R-plot format [6], indicated that overall our crater densities for these basins agreed with previous determinations [e.g., 7]. One exception was the Orientale melt pond (Im1), which was indicated to be older than the other regions examined (Fig. 1). This was hypothesized to be due to a combination of secondary craters and different material properties affecting the rate of crater degradation. A second result was that the examined maria (Imbrium-a and Orientale-M1) had different SFD slopes from those of the older Birkhoff basin, with more small craters and fewer large craters, implying a possible change in the impactor population SFD (Fig. 1). These differences, however, were also suggested to be consistent with contamination of the SFD by unrecognized small secondary craters (Fig. 2). In general, we found that many of our SFDs were likely influenced at small diameters by unrecognized secondaries. While these results are intriguing, they are preliminary, only including crater measurements for a few regions and limited diameter ranges. Here we present data compiled from new regions within Imbrium and Orientale basin to further constrain the evolution of the impactor population relevant for the Moon, and the contribution of secondary cratering.
Chapman Clark
Kirchoff Michelle
Sherman K.
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