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2 - Impact structures on Earth and Mars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2009

By
Nadine G. Barlow ,
Virgil Sharpton  and
Ruslan O. Kuzmin
Edited by
Mary Chapman
Nadine G. Barlow
Affiliation:
Dept. Physics and Astronomy, Northern Arizona University
Virgil Sharpton
Affiliation:
Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska
Ruslan O. Kuzmin
Affiliation:
Vernadsky Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences
Mary Chapman
Affiliation:
United States Geological Survey, Arizona
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Summary

Introduction

Every solid-surfaced body in the Solar System except Io shows evidence of the impact cratering process, and Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 showed that impacts can even temporarily leave their mark on gas planets. Earth's active geologic environment has erased much of its cratering record, particularly from the early episode of high impact rates known as the late heavy bombardment period (>3.8 Gyr ago). In comparison, ∼60% of the Martian surface preserves the late heavy bombardment record. Mars retains the most complete record of impact cratering in the entire Solar System (Barlow, 1988) and these craters display a range of morphologic features seldom seen on other solid-surface bodies. Comparison of terrestrial and Martian craters provides a more thorough understanding of impact structures: Mars preserves the pristine morphologic features which erosion has largely destroyed for terrestrial craters, but terrestrial studies allow us to understand subsurface structures and materials resulting from impact for which we currently have no information on Mars. Presence of an atmosphere and subsurface volatiles suggests that crater formation may be more similar on these two bodies than between Earth and Moon.

Understanding how impact craters form results from laboratory experiments, computer simulations, nuclear and chemical explosions, and terrestrial crater studies. Laboratory experiments were instrumental in realizing that high-velocity impacts create approximately circular craters except at low impact angles (Gault and Wedekind, 1979). Nuclear and large chemical explosions provided the first opportunity to study the physics of crater formation (Oberbeck, 1977).

Type
Chapter
Information
The Geology of Mars
Evidence from Earth-Based Analogs
 , pp. 47 - 70
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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