ISSN 2070-7401 (Print), ISSN 2411-0280 (Online)
Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa
CURRENT PROBLEMS IN REMOTE SENSING OF THE EARTH FROM SPACE

  

Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa, 2014, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 121-131

Creation of a catalog of young impact craters on giant volcanoes of Mars for geologic studies

М.А. Kreslavskiy1,2  , I.P. Karachevtseva1  , M.A. Baskakova1  , A.A. Kokhanov1  , E.N. Lazarev1,3 
1 Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography, Moscow, Russia
2 University of California - Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, USA
3 P.K. Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow, Russia
The paper presents the results of studies based on a catalog of small impact craters on the slopes of large volcanoes in Tharsis Regio on Mars. Statistical analysis of the populations of small craters allows estimation of the time of the last active sand transport on the large volcanoes, which enables studies of martian climate changes in the recent geological past (up to 1 million years). The study of small impact craters populations is carried out with space images obtained by the camera High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) onboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft. The catalogue of young small craters (diameter over 3 m) created with the GIS technology currently contains about 2,000 objects. Preliminary analysis of these populations of small impact craters on the giant volcanoes shows that there are statistically significant differences in the density of craters superposed over aeolian deposits between different parts of Tharsis Regio; in some parts of Tharsis small impact craters are virtually absent. In the recent geological past, wind transport of sand stopped in different places at different times, while in some areas it is currently active. The last time of active sand transport varies from site to site within a wide range.
Keywords: Mars, Tharsis Regio (Mars), HiRISE, MRO, impact crater, GIS
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