NUMERICAL MODELLING AND EJECTA DISTRIBUTION ANALYSIS OF A MARTIAN FRESH CRATER

Abstract:

Images taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal fresh craters on Mars that are known to be recent as they are constrained by before and after images (Daubar et al., 2013). In particular, on Nov. 19, 2013 an image acquired by HiRISE, ESP_034285_1835, observed a 25 m diameter fresh crater located at 3.7° N, 53.4° E. This impact occurred between July 2010 and May 2012, as constrained by Context camera (CTX) images. Because the terrain where the crater formed is dusty, the fresh crater appears blue in the enhanced color of the HiRISE image, due to removal of the reddish dust in that area.

We analyze this crater using the iSALE shock physics code (Amsden et al., 1980, Collins et al., 2004, Ivanov et al., 1997, Melosh et al., 1992, Wünnemann et al., 2006) to model the formation of this impact structure which is ~25 m in diameter and ~ 2.5 - 3 m in depth. These values are obtained from the DTM profile we have generated. We model the Martian surface considering different target compositions as regolith and fractured basalt rock and we based our simulations on a basalt projectile with a porosity of 10% (which is derived from the average of the meteorite types proposed by Britt et al., 2002) that hits the Martian surface with a beginning velocity equal to 7 km/s (Le Feuvre & Wieczorek, 2011) and an impact angle of 90°. The projectile size is around 1 m and it is estimated from the comparison between the DTM profile and the profiles obtained by numerical modelling. The primary objective of this analysis is the detailed study of the ejecta, in fact we will track the ejecta coming from the simulation and compare them to the ejecta distribution computed on the image (the ejecta reached a distance of more than 15 km). From the matching of the simulated ejecta with their real distribution, we will be able to understand the goodness of the simulation and also put constraints on the target material.