Other
Scientific paper
May 2004
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004agusm.p33d..03p&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2004, abstract #P33D-03
Other
5420 Impact Phenomena (Includes Cratering), 6225 Mars, 8015 Local Crustal Structure, 8149 Planetary Tectonics (5475)
Scientific paper
Impact basins of Mars reveal important insights on martian tectonic evolution. They involve strongly disrupted, depressed regions of crust with likely enhanced porosity and permeability that may locally concentrate water and other crustal fluids. We assess the crustal details of impact basins by separating the Mars Global Surveyor free-air anomalies into terrain-correlated and terrain-decorrelated components. The separation is based on the correlation spectrum between the free-air anomalies and the gravity effects evaluated from the topography mapped by the Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter. For topographically visible multi-ring basins like Isidis, striking circular patterns of alternating terrain-correlated free-air maxima and minima mark the uncompensated components of the central mantle plug and surrounding rings. The first vertical derivatives of these anomalies effectively estimate the basin ring locations and a transient cavity depth-to-diameter ratio of 0.09 that is in good agreement with the ratio observed for lunar nearside multi-ring basins. For the Isidis Basin, we obtain an excavation depth of roughly 62 km and a 2 km high-density basin fill that may cap the central basin. Subtle quasi-circular depressions in the relatively featureless MOLA terrain of the northern hemisphere have identified potentially buried impact basins (Frey et al.,2001). An altimetry depression in Acidalia Planitia and another in Utopia are also associated with ringed patterns of terrain-decorrelated free-air anomalies that may mark the uncompensated mass effects of buried impact basins. The gravity-derived transient excavation depths for these inferred basins are roughly 41 and 20 km, respectively, while the related ring diameters (D) follow the ubiquitous √ []{2}D-rule of planetary impact basins. The crust of these buried basins is likely to contain water at higher levels than the crust of the equatorial basins that was substantially dewatered with the development of the great northern basin.
Leftwich Timothy E.
Potts Laramie V.
Shum C. K.
Taylor Patrick T.
von Frese Ralph R.
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