The Structure and evolution of the Moon's South Pole-Aitken Basin from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) (Invited)

Details The Structure and evolution of the Moon's South Pole-Aitken Basin from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) (Invited) The Structure and evolution of the Moon's South Pole-Aitken Basin from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) (Invited)

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p43a..05z&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P43A-05

Mathematics

Logic

[1221] Geodesy And Gravity / Lunar And Planetary Geodesy And Gravity, [5420] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Impact Phenomena, Cratering, [5455] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Origin And Evolution, [6250] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Moon

Scientific paper

The South Pole-Aitken basin is the largest and oldest impact structure on the Moon and one of the largest impact basins in the solar system. As such, it preserves the record of how major impacts disrupt early planetary crusts and how basin morphology is modified throughout geologic history by subsequent impacts, volcanism, ejecta from surrounding impacts, viscous relaxation and possibly internal dynamics. Further, it serves as a type example for global-scale cratering in a size regime where the cavity diameter is of order the planetary diameter. The Lunar Obiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) is currently mapping the Moon and has produced the highest spatial resolution global altimetric model for any planetary body. LOLA is a multibeam laser altimeter system that lays down 5 parallel profiles. Profile tracks are 10-12 m apart and observations along a given profile are separated by ~56 m. The instrument has a ranging precision of 10 cm. LOLA’s current global topographic model contains over 2 billion observations and has a radial accuracy of about 1 m. In the global model the across track separation of tracks, which decreases with increasing number of orbits of the Moon, is currently ~ 1.8 km at the equator and less at increasing north and south latitudes. LOLA observations afford the opportunity to map SP-A in unprecedented detail. The basin displays an elliptical planform (elongated by ~17%) and a similarly asymmetric cavity shape. Despite being the oldest mapped major impact structure on the Moon the crater interior is deficient in craters in comparison to exterior surroundings. Mare fill and ejecta from the nearby Orientale Basin and other basins contributed to the dearth of small craters. High-resolution topography allows identification of heavily degraded partial ring remnants. Some evidence for an elevated topographic annulus southwest of the basin may represent the remains of the ejecta blanket. The highlands north of the basin do not appear to have a primary origin as ejecta.

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