Investigation of Pickering Crater (Mars) by Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS)

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5475 Tectonics (8149), 5480 Volcanism (6063, 8148, 8450)

Scientific paper

The Mars Express (MEX) Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) is a low- frequency (1.8, 3, 4, 5 MHz) radar capable of ground-penetration. The instrument records echoes returning to MEX from Martian interior depths as big as 5 km at nadir, well within the crust. It can thus provide fundamental information for the search and identification of geological structures and rock layering inside the Martian crust, being particularly useful on wide flat expanses such as the vast volcanic fields surrounding the Tharsis Montes. Pickering is an approximately 150 km diameter crater located about 1500 km SW of Arsia Mons, the oldest of the Tharsis volcanoes. The crater has been modified by tectonic activity and it has been infilled, with the most surficial strata consisting of volcanic rocks. To investigate structures deeper in the material filling Pickering Crater, we used data from MARSIS orbits 4192 and 4932. Their parallel tracks run along the eastern side and the central portion of the crater, respectively. After accounting for the effects of high intensity nadir surface reflections and off-nadir clutter, an apparent low angle N-dipping reflector of approximate horizontal length of 10 km was identified at depths 0.5-1 km below the surface in both orbits. Because the orbit tracks do not intersect, no unique structural reconstruction is possible. However, the presence of similar reflections in both orbits, and the geometric constraints provided by the morphology of the crater, are useful in narrowing the field of possible interpretations. Combining the MARSIS evidence with other datasets furthermore constrains plausible tectonic scenarios.

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