Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p21b1602t&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P21B-1602
Other
[5475] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Tectonics, [6280] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Saturnian Satellites
Scientific paper
Cassini images of Dione show several fault zones cutting through the moon’s icy surface. We have measured the displacement and length of 271 faults, and estimated the strain occurring in 6 different fault zones. These measurements allow us to quantify the total amount of surface strain on Dione as well as constrain what processes might have caused these faults to form. Though we do not have detailed topography across fault scarps on Dione, we can use their projected size on the camera plane to estimate their heights, assuming a reasonable surface slope. Starting with high resolution images of Dione obtained by the Cassini ISS, we marked points at the top to the bottom of each fault scarp to measure the fault’s projected displacement and its orientation along strike. Line and sample information for the measurements were then processed through ISIS to derive latitude/longitude information and pixel dimensions. We then calculate the three dimensional orientation of a vector running from the bottom to the top of the fault scarp, assuming a 45 degree angle with respect to the surface, and project this vector onto the spacecraft camera plane. This projected vector gives us a correction factor to estimate the actual vertical displacement of the fault scarp. This process was repeated many times for each fault, to show variations of displacement along the length of the fault. To compare each fault to its neighbors and see how strain was accommodated across a population of faults, we divided the faults into fault zones, and created new coordinate systems oriented along the central axis of each fault zone. We could then quantify the amount of fault overlap and add the displacement of overlapping faults to estimate the amount of strain accommodated in each zone. Faults in the southern portion of Padua have a strain of 0.031(+/-) 0.0097, central Padua exhibits a strain of .032(+/-) 0.012, and faults in northern Padua have a strain of 0.025(+/-) 0.0080. The western faults of Eurotas have a strain of 0.031(+/-) 0.011, while the eastern faults have a strain of 0.037(+/-) 0.025. Lastly, Clusium has a strain of 0.10 (+/-) 0.029. We also calculated the ratio of maximum fault displacement vs. the length of the faults, and we found this ratio to be 0.019 when drawing a trend line through all the faults that were analyzed. D/L measurements performed on two faults on Europa using stereo topography showed a value of .021 (Nimmo and Schenk 2006), the only other icy satellite where this ratio has been measured. In contrast, faults on Earth has a D/L ratio of about .1 and Mars has a D/L Ratio of about .01 (Schultz et al. 2006).
Collins Geoffrey C.
Tarlow S.
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