Modeling and Mapping of the Structural Deformation of Large Impact Craters on the Moon and Mercury

Modeling and Mapping of the Structural Deformation of Large Impact Craters on the Moon and Mercury PDF Author: Jeffrey Balcerski
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cratering
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The large craters and impact basins that are present on nearly every solid body in the solar system are remnants of a cataclysmic process that excavated, melted, vaporized, and ejected tremendous amounts of material from the surface of the planets. The results of this process of energy release and topographic disruption can be used to derive information about the deep geologic past of the planets. On Mercury, the topography of the melted sheet which forms interior floors of craters> 12 km in diameter, is well preserved and can be measured using the altimetric data from the MESSENGER orbital mission. I use these measurements to place chronologic constraints on the onset and duration of some of Mercury's large-scale topographic features. On the Moon, the events that formed impact craters measuring over 120 km in diameter were capable of disrupting the crust-mantle boundary. Many of those perturbations have persisted through the billions of years since their formation. The processes that preserve this remarkable topography and the way in which it deforms over time, are poorly constrained due to the lack of observation of geologically recent basin formation events. However, constraints on these processes can be determined using models governed by high resolution gravity and topography data gathered from recent orbital missions to the Moon, as well as data produced by laboratory rheology experiments. I measure and catalog the morphologic characteristics of the lunar basins and develop numerical finite element structural models in order to evaluate hypotheses about the formation of these features and provide new insight into the structural evolution of the Moon's shallow interior.

Modeling and Mapping of the Structural Deformation of Large Impact Craters on the Moon and Mercury

Modeling and Mapping of the Structural Deformation of Large Impact Craters on the Moon and Mercury PDF Author: Jeffrey Balcerski
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cratering
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The large craters and impact basins that are present on nearly every solid body in the solar system are remnants of a cataclysmic process that excavated, melted, vaporized, and ejected tremendous amounts of material from the surface of the planets. The results of this process of energy release and topographic disruption can be used to derive information about the deep geologic past of the planets. On Mercury, the topography of the melted sheet which forms interior floors of craters> 12 km in diameter, is well preserved and can be measured using the altimetric data from the MESSENGER orbital mission. I use these measurements to place chronologic constraints on the onset and duration of some of Mercury's large-scale topographic features. On the Moon, the events that formed impact craters measuring over 120 km in diameter were capable of disrupting the crust-mantle boundary. Many of those perturbations have persisted through the billions of years since their formation. The processes that preserve this remarkable topography and the way in which it deforms over time, are poorly constrained due to the lack of observation of geologically recent basin formation events. However, constraints on these processes can be determined using models governed by high resolution gravity and topography data gathered from recent orbital missions to the Moon, as well as data produced by laboratory rheology experiments. I measure and catalog the morphologic characteristics of the lunar basins and develop numerical finite element structural models in order to evaluate hypotheses about the formation of these features and provide new insight into the structural evolution of the Moon's shallow interior.

Impact Craters in South America

Impact Craters in South America PDF Author: Rogelio Daniel Acevedo
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319130935
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 108

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Book Description
A complete and updated catalogue of impact craters and structures in South America from 2014 is presented here. Approximately eighty proven, suspected and disproven structures have been identified by several sources in this continent. All the impact sites of this large continent have been exhaustively reviewed: the proved ones, the possible ones and some very doubtful. Many sites remain without a clear geological "in situ" confirmation and some of them could be even rejected. Argentina and Brazil are leading the list containing almost everything detected. In Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Guyana, Paraguay, Perú, Uruguay and Venezuela only a few were observed. Only Ecuador is waiting for new discoveries. So far, the largest well stated impact site is still the Araguainha structure in Brazil with its 40 kilometers in diameter. However, two possible impact structures are larger than Araguainha: Malvinas, (with 250 kilometers in diameter) and Vichada in Colombia, (50 kilometers). This study also reports the existence of some Tertiary-Quaternary glassy impactite layers: the "escorias" and "tierras cocidas" of the pampas in Argentina.

Morphological and Structural Mapping of the Oudemans Impact Crater Layered Central Uplift, Mars

Morphological and Structural Mapping of the Oudemans Impact Crater Layered Central Uplift, Mars PDF Author: Bahareh Kasmai
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
Central uplifts in large meteorite impact craters provide valuable information about the subsurface geology of planetary bodies. Compared to impact craters on Earth, Martian central uplifts can be well exposed and can be mapped in detail by using satellite imagery. Central uplifts preserve morphological and structural features formed as result of the combination of emplacement during the impact process, post impact modification, and erosion over time. In this study, the Oudemans Crater central uplift (the largest central uplift with layers on Mars) was investigated. Oudemans (9.89 S, 268.1 E) is 124 km in diameter and is located in the Sinai Planum at the western end of Valles Marineris canyon system ; it also is part of the Tharsis province, which is major volcanic region on Mars. The central uplift was structurally and geomorphologically mapped and analyzed using High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) imagery combined with other data sets tied to topographic data as a base map in Arc-GIS. The Oudemans Crater central uplift was divided into five main geomorphologic units: 1.) exposed bedrock -- 2.) megabreccia -- 3.) clast-rich impact melt rock -- 4.) clast-poor and pitted impact melt -- and 5.) erosional deposits (mass wasting unit and aeolian deposit) units. Faults, folds, dykes, and deformed bedding were also mapped. Through structural mapping, deformed, folded, and fractured layers were mapped as they provide a frame of reference with respect to the structural deformation of the uplift. The preferred orientation of faults appears to be perpendicular to the impact trajectory (oblique trend to the central uplift) and to be thrust faults. Four obvious folds were mapped towards the centre of the uplift consistent with increased deformation towards the Crater centre. Dykes are typically perpendicular to the bedrock and can be seen mostly in the centre of the central uplift.

Large Meteorite Impacts III

Large Meteorite Impacts III PDF Author: Thomas Kenkmann
Publisher: Geological Society of America
ISBN: 0813723841
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 486

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Book Description
"The third volume of the series “Large Meteorite Impacts” provides an updated and comprehensive overview of modern impact crater research. In 26 chapters, more than 90 authors from Europe, the United States, Russia, Canada, and South Africa give a balanced, firsthand account of the multidisciplinary field of cratering science, with reports on field studies, geophysical analyses, and experimental and numerical simulations. Nine chapters focus on structure, geophysics, and cratering motions of terrestrial craters. Recent advances in impact ejecta studies and shock metamorphism are assembled, each with seven chapters, and three chapters extend the scope from a terrestrial to a planetary perspective."--pub. desc.

Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution II

Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution II PDF Author: Burkhard O. Dressler
Publisher: Geological Society of America
ISBN: 9780813723396
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 478

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Book Description


Cratering in Marine Environments and on Ice

Cratering in Marine Environments and on Ice PDF Author: Henning Dypvik
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3662064235
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Despite their global importance, little is known about the few existing examples of impacts into marine environments and icy targets. They are among the least understood and studied parts of impact crater geology. The icy impacts are also of great importance in understanding the developments of the outer planets and their satellites such as Mars or Europa. Furthermore, the impact mechanisms, crater formation and collapse, melt production and the ejecta distribution are scarcely known for impact on targets other than the "classical" solid silicates of the continental crust. The reaction of water and ice to impacts clearly deserves a more thorough study. The understanding of impact effects and consequences in the case of aqueous hits, soft sediments and icy targets has not been thoroughly explored and comprises the main focus of this book. A number of papers in the field of hypervelocity impacts on ice are included. These cover a review of available literature in the field of laboratory studies of such impacts, large impact structures on Titan, predicting impact cratering on a comet nucleus, and a novel report on the survival of bacteria fired at hypervelocity into icy surfaces. This latter paper is concerned with astrobiology and in particular Panspermia (natural migration of life through space).

Finite-element Modeling of Large Impact Craters

Finite-element Modeling of Large Impact Craters PDF Author: Elizabeth Pope Turtle
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cratering
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
In collaboration, E. Pierazzo and I used both hydrocode and finite-element modeling to recreate the formation of the Vredefort structure in order to predict where the pressure of an impact-generated shock wave would have been sufficient to form shatter cones and planar deformation features and to follow their subsequent displacement during crater excavation and collapse. By comparing the results of simulations of impacts by projectiles of various sizes to the observed locations of the shock features around Vredefort we constrained the projectile diameter to be 10-14 km This corresponds to a final crater diameter of 120-200 km I used finite-element models of crater collapse to investigate the ring-tectonic theory of multiple ring crater formation. The results of these models indicate that the ring-tectonic theory is consistent with the formation of circumferential faults around large terrestrial impact craters such as Chicxulub. The final project described in this dissertation uses the morphologies of impact craters on the icy Jovian satellite Europa to probe its lithospheric structure. Comparisons of simulated stress fields to the observed fracture patterns around Europan craters suggest that the elastic lithosphere in which the crater formed was at least 12 km thick.

Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution IV

Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution IV PDF Author: W. U. Reimold
Publisher: Geological Society of America
ISBN: 0813724651
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 676

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Book Description
Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution held at the Vredefort Dome, South Africa, in Aug. 2008.

Encyclopedic Atlas of Terrestrial Impact Craters

Encyclopedic Atlas of Terrestrial Impact Craters PDF Author: Enrico Flamini
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030054519
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 691

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Book Description
This comprehensive atlas explains the genesis and evolution of impact known craters on Earth, presenting a wealth of radar images from the Italian COSMO-SkyMed satellites that were acquired at the same frequency, spatial resolution, operating mode, and illumination, allowing excellent comparison of different impact structures. It also discusses in detail the processes that have hidden or erased terrestrial impact craters, and clearly explains the basic principles of remote sensing and the COSMO-SkyMed system and radar instruments. Also, the optical satellite remote sensing technique used to produce the optical images is described. The main section documents each of the exposed craters officially recognized as caused by meteoritic impact, presenting a table with the COSMO-SkyMed radar image and, where available, a Sentinel optical image and a photograph taken in situ. A short accompanying text reports the location, context, geographical coordinates, and other ancillary information to support future researches.

Impact Cratering

Impact Cratering PDF Author: G. R. Osinski
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 140519829X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
Impact cratering is arguably the most ubiquitous geological process in the Solar System. It has played an important role in Earth’s history, shaping the geological landscape, affecting the evolution of life, and generating economic resources. However, it was only in the latter half of the 20th century that the importance of impact cratering as a geological process was recognized and only during the past couple of decades that the study of meteorite impact structures has moved into the mainstream. This book seeks to fill a critical gap in the literature by providing an overview text covering broad aspects of the impact cratering process and aimed at graduate students, professionals and researchers alike. It introduces readers to the threat and nature of impactors, the impact cratering process, the products, and the effects – both destructive and beneficial. A series of chapters on the various techniques used to study impact craters provide a foundation for anyone studying impact craters for the first time.