Impact cratering on Titan II. Global melt, escaping ejecta, and aqueous alteration of surface organics

New three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of hypervelocity impacts into the crust of Titan were undertaken to determine the fraction of liquid water generated on the surface of Saturn's largest moon over its history and, hence, the potential for surface—modification of hydrocarbons and nitriles by exposure to liquid water. We model in detail an individual impact event in terms of ejecta produced and melt generated, and use this to estimate melt production over Titan's history, taking into account the total flux of the impactors and its decay over time. Our estimates show that a global melt layer at any time after the very beginning of Titan's history is improbable; but transient melting local to newly formed craters has occurred over large parts of the surface. Local maxima of the melt are connected with the largest impact events. We also calculate the amount of volatiles delivered at the impact with various impact velocities (from 3 km/s for possible Hyperion fragments to 11 km/s for Jupiter family comets) and their retention as a possible source of Titan's atmosphere. We find the probability of impact ejecta escaping Titan with its modern dense and thick atmosphere is rather low, and dispersal of Titan organics throughout the rest of the Solar System requires impactors tens of kilometers in diameter. Water ice melting and exposure of organics to liquid water has been widespread because of impacts, but burial or obscuration of craters by organic deposits or cryovolcanism is aided by viscous relaxation. The largest impactors may breach an ammonia-water mantle layer, creating a circular albedo contrast rather than a crater.     

Ejecta size-velocity relation derived from the distribution of the secondary craters of kilometer-sized craters on Mars

The relation between the size and velocity of impact crater ejecta has been studied by both laboratory experiments and numerical modeling. An alternative method, used here, is to analyze the record of past impact events, such as the distribution of secondary craters on planetary surfaces, as described by Vickery (Icarus 67 (1986) 224; Geophys. Res. Lett. 14 (1987) 726). We first applied the method to lunar images taken by the CLEMENTINE mission, which revealed that the size-velocity relations of ejecta from craters 32 and 40 km in diameter were similar to those derived by Vickery for a crater 39 km in diameter. Next, we studied the distribution of small craters in the vicinity of kilometer-sized craters on three images from the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on board the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS). If these small craters are assumed to be secondaries ejected from the kilometer-sized crater in each image, the ejection velocities are of hundreds of meters per second. These data fill a gap between the previous results of Vickery and those of laboratory studies.     

内蒙古达里诺尔晚新生代火山群喷发特征研究

达里诺尔火山群有近百座晚新生代单成因火山,其地质地貌形态各异,喷发形式多样。这些火山既有爆破式喷发,如:夏威夷式喷发,斯通博利式喷发,强斯通博利式喷发和射汽岩浆喷发;也有溢流式喷发,如盾状火山;还有岩浆缓慢侵出,如大黑山。火山群内典型火山机构表明,不同的喷发方式穿插于火山喷发过程:早期火山活动多以侵出和溢流为主,逐渐转变为岩浆爆破式喷发(强斯通博利式,斯通博利式),晚期又过渡为溢流式喷发,喷发过程大体经历一个爆破强度弱-强-弱的转变。射汽岩浆型的火山则是以剧烈的射汽岩浆爆炸开始,后期逐渐转弱为岩浆爆破喷发和溢流喷发。火山喷发过程中火山产物出现牛顿流体,宾汉流体,层流,颗粒流,涌流,空降等不同类型的运动形式,自火口向远源运动,形成差异化的火山产物。岩浆的输送速率、上升速度,以及围岩的类型,可能是造成达里诺尔火山群多样化喷发的主要因素。     

Measurement of Ejecta from Normal Incident Hypervelocity Impact on Lunar Regolith Simulant

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) continues to make progress toward long-term lunar habitation. Critical to the design of a lunar habitat is an understanding of the lunar surface environment. A subject for further definition is the lunar impact ejecta environment. The document NASA SP-8013 was developed for the Apollo program and is the latest definition of the ejecta environment. There is concern that NASA SP-8013 may over-estimate the lunar ejecta environment. NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) has initiated several tasks to improve the accuracy of our understanding of the lunar surface ejecta environment. This paper reports the results of experiments on projectile impact into powered pumice targets, simulating unconsolidated lunar regolith. The Ames Vertical Gun Range (AVGR) was used to accelerate spherical Pyrex projectiles of 0.29g to velocities ranging between 2.5 and 5.18 km/s. Impact on the pumice target occurred at normal incidence. The ejected particles were detected by thin aluminum foil targets placed around the pumice target in a 0.5 Torr vacuum. A simplistic technique to characterize the ejected particles was formulated. Improvements to this technique will be discussed for implementation in future tests.     

The Tsenkher structure in the Gobi-Altai, Mongolia: Geomorphological hints of an impact origin

The Tsenkher structure, in the Gobi-Altai region of Mongolia, was studied using a wide array of remote sensing data and field observations. The structure has a shallow, 3.6 km wide, central depression bordered by a near-circular ridge (putative crater rim) with breaches to the northwest. The central depression is obliterated partially by fluvial infill through these breaches. Outside the ridge, the western side is a rugged terrain, but the eastern half is characterized by a concentric outer ridge that occurs at about one radius distance from the inner ridge. Although intrusion, salt tectonics and maar crater hypotheses cannot be completely ruled out, its morphology strongly implies an impact origin for the Tsenkher structure. If of impact origin, it has a well-preserved morphology and its position in the basin fills indicates that the formation may have occurred relatively recently, sometime during the late Tertiary or Quaternary. The outer ridge morphology is similar to rampart craters on Mars, whose formation has been attributed to fluidization of a water-rich target layer and ejecta materials, or to atmospheric entrainment and deposition of ejected materials. However, other hypotheses including erosional remnant of ejecta blanket, erosional scarp of structural rim uplift, multi-ring or deeply eroded crater rim of a peak-ring crater are also possible at this stage. A complex fluvial and probable lacustrine history is envisaged within the Tsenkher structure. The structure is also associated with archaeology, including Paleolithic and Bronze Age remains.     

Chandrayaan-1 observation of distant secondary craters of Copernicus exhibiting central mound morphology: Evidence for low velocity clustered impacts on the Moon

Analysis of the Chandrayaan-1 Terrain Mapping Camera image of a 20 km×27 km area in the Mare Imbrium region revealed a cluster of thousands of fresh and buried impact craters in the size range of 20-1300 m. A majority of the large fresh craters with diameter ranging from 160 to 1270 m exhibit near-circular mounds (30-335 m diameter and 10-40 m height) in the crater floor, and their size depends on the host crater size. The origin of this cluster of secondary craters may be traced to Copernicus crater, based on global lunar image and the analysis of Chandrayaan-1 Hyper Spectral Imager data. Our findings provide further evidence for secondary crater formation by low-velocity impact of a cloud of clustered fragments. The presence of central mounds can also distinguish the secondary craters from the primary craters and refine the chronology of lunar surface based on counting of small craters.     

Motion of blocks on the surface of Phobos: New constraints for the formation of grooves

Although grooves are common on asteroids, on Phobos the grooves have been the subject of various formation hypotheses for two reasons: the fact that Phobos is orbiting around Mars close to the Roche limit, implies an unusual gravity environment as well as the presence of the huge crater impact, Stickney, which seems to be related at least to a family of grooves. Among many hypotheses, it has been suggested that the grooves could have been dug by rolling Stickney ejecta, but this hypothesis was questioned using two main arguments: no block was observed at the end of the grooves, nor do they run downslope. Thus, the study of surface and near surface dynamics on Phobos can clarify the soundness of these controversial arguments.The present study explores this idea by computing the trajectory of a test mass gliding on the surface of Phobos for any initial position and velocity. An ellipsoidal model of Phobos is used for both the gravity and surface geometry, and several orbiting distances from Mars are considered. It is shown that, due to the Phobos rotation, the trajectories generally do not run downslope even for velocities as low as ∼1 m/s. In consequence the corresponding argument against the rolling blocks hypothesis is not applicable. This hypothesis, however, is clearly ruled out for the sets of parallel grooves in the polar regions because of the curvature of the computed trajectories. On the contrary the trajectories issued from the rim of Stickney close to the equator, with velocities of a few m/s, show similitude with the corresponding groove patterns, in particular for the east–west asymmetry. In some conditions the trajectories leave the surface, which may account for regions free of grooves and for trails without blocks at the end. Consequently, the rolling block hypothesis cannot be rejected outright until further analysis is carried out. Damping of the motion on the regolith is simulated introducing a solid damping coefficient in the equations. A relatively small but not unrealistic coefficient of ∼0.1 accounts for the length of the long main western hypothetic block trails. The simulations with damping confirm that the trajectories turn downslope only at the very end for velocities ?1 m/s, but valuable comparison with the observations requires a better model.     

The Deep Impact oblique impact cratering experiment

The Deep Impact probe collided with 9P Tempel 1 at an angle of about 30° from the horizontal. This impact angle produced an evolving ejecta flow field very similar to much smaller scale oblique-impact experiments in porous particulate targets in the laboratory. Similar features and phenomena include a decoupled vapor/dust plume at the earliest times, a pronounced downrange bias of the ejecta, an uprange “zone of avoidance” (ZoA), heart-shaped ejecta ray system (cardioid pattern), and a conical (but asymmetric) ejecta curtain. Departures from nominal cratering evolution, however, provide clues on the nature of the impact target. These departures include: fainter than expected flash at first contact, delayed emergence of the self-luminous vapor/dust plume, uprange-directed plume, narrow early-time uprange ray followed by a late-stage uprange plume, persistence of ejecta asymmetries (and the uprange ZoA) throughout the approach sequence, emergence of a downrange ZoA at late times, detachment of uprange curved rays, very long lasting non-radial ejecta rays, and high-angle ejecta plume lasting over the entire encounter. The first second of crater formation most closely resembles the consequences of a highly porous target, while later evolution indicates that the target may be layered as well. Experiments also reveal that impacts into highly porous targets produce a vapor/dust plume directed back up the incoming trajectory. This uprange plume is attributed to cavitation within a narrow penetration funnel. The observed lateral expansion speed of the initial vapor plume downrange provides an estimate for the total vaporized mass equal to ∼5mp (projectile masses) of water ice or 6mp of CO₂. The downrange plume speed is consistent with the gas expansion added to the downrange horizontal component of the DI probe. Based on high-speed spectroscopy of experimental impacts, the observed delay in brightening of the DI plume may be the result of delayed condensation of carbon, in addition to silicates. Observed molecular species in the initial self-luminous vapor plume likely represent recombination products from completely dissociated target materials. The crater produced by the impact can be estimated from Earth-based observations of total ejected mass to be 130-220 m in diameter. This size range is consistent with a 220 m-diameter circular feature at the point of impact visible in highly processed, deconvolved HRI images. The final crater, however, may resemble an inverted sombrero-hat, with a deep central pit surrounded by a shallow excavation crater. Excavated distal material observed from the Earth was likely from the upper few meters contrasted with ballistic ejecta observed from the DI flyby, which included deep materials (10-30 m) within the diffuse plume above the crater and shallower (5-10 m) materials within the ejecta curtain.     

Correlation of the largest craters,stratigraphic impact signatures,and extinction events over the past 250 Myr

The six largest known impact craters of the last 250 Myr(≥70 km in diameter),which are capable of causing significant environmental damage,coincide with four times of recognized extinction events at 36(with 2 craters),66,and 145 Myr ago,and possibly with two provisional extinction events at 168 and215 Myr ago.These impact cratering events are accompanied by layers in the geologic record interpreted as impact ejecta.Chance occurrences of impacts and extinctions can be rejected at confidence levels of99.96%(for 4 impact/extinctions)to 99.99%(for 6 impact/extinctions).These results argue that several extinction events over the last 250 Myr may be related to the effects of large-body impacts.