Moon-Mercury - Large impact structures, isostasy and average crustal viscosity

Details Moon-Mercury - Large impact structures, isostasy and average crustal viscosity Moon-Mercury - Large impact structures, isostasy and average crustal viscosity

Nov 1977

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1977pepi...15..189s&link_type=abstract

(Lunar Science Institute, Conference on Comparisons of Mercury and the Moon, Houston, Tex., Nov. 15-17, 1976.) Physics of the Ea

Physics

8

Craters, Isostasy, Lunar Crust, Mercury (Planet), Planetary Crusts, Planetary Surfaces, Structural Basins, Viscosity, Cratering, Deposition, Frequency Distribution, Isostatic Pressure, Lunar Craters, Lunar Geology

Scientific paper

It is shown that Mercury's surface has only 70% as many large craters (of at least 200 km in diameter) as the moon. The density of Mercurian impact craters having diameters over 400 km is 30% of that of the moon, and for craters with diameters between 400 and 700 km, Mercurian density is 21% of that of the moon. The size-frequency distribution curve of Mercury is the same as the lunar cumulative -2 slope. The Mercurian curve, however, lies well below the 10% surface saturation level of the lunar curve. This may indicate that the old, heavily-cratered Mercurian terrain is not presently in a state of cratering equilibrium. The differences in crater and basin densities observed between Mercury and the moon may be functions of crater-production rates or of different crustal histories. The total isostatic compensation of impact craters having diameters of about 800 km suggests that the average viscosity of the Mercurian crust during approximately the past 4 eons was the same as that of the moon.

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