Secondary craters and ejecta across the solar system: Populations and effects on impact-crater-based chronologies
Author
Bierhaus, E. B.McEwen, A. S.
Robbins, S. J.
Singer, K. N.
Dones, L.
Kirchoff, M. R.
Williams, J. -P.
Affiliation
Univ ArizonaIssue Date
2018-04
Metadata
Show full item recordPublisher
WILEYCitation
Bierhaus, E. B., McEwen, A. S., Robbins, S. J., Singer, K. N., Dones, L. , Kirchoff, M. R. and Williams, J. (2018), Secondary craters and ejecta across the solar system: Populations and effects on impact‐crater–based chronologies. Meteorit Planet Sci, 53: 638-671. doi:10.1111/maps.13057Journal
METEORITICS & PLANETARY SCIENCERights
© The Meteoritical Society, 2018.Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
We review the secondary-crater research over the past decade, and provide new analyses and simulations that are the first to model an accumulation of a combined primary-plus-secondary crater population as discrete cratering events. We develop the secondary populations by using scaling laws to generate ejecta fragments, integrating the trajectories of individual ejecta fragments, noting the location and velocity at impact, and using scaling laws to estimate secondary-crater diameters given the impact conditions. We also explore the relationship between the impactor size-frequency distribution (SFD) and the resulting secondary-crater SFD. Our results from these analyses indicate that the "secondary effect" varies from surface to surface and that no single conclusion applies across the solar system nor at any given moment in time-rather, there is a spectrum of outcomes both spatially and temporally, dependent upon target parameters and the impacting population. Surface gravity and escape speed define the spatial distribution of secondaries. A shallow-sloped impactor SFD will cause proportionally more secondaries than a steeper-sloped SFD. Accounting for the driving factors that define the magnitude and spatial distribution of secondaries is essential to determine the relative population of secondary craters, and their effect on derived surface ages.Note
12 month embargo; published online: 09 March 2018ISSN
1086-9379EISSN
1945-5100Version
Final accepted manuscriptSponsors
NASA CDAPS grant [NNX14AD55G]; NASA SSW grant [NNX15AH97G]; NASA PGG grant [NNX14AP51G]; NASA SSERVI; NASA Mars Data Analysis Program [NNX14AM12G]Additional Links
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/maps.13057ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1111/maps.13057