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1.
The lunar cratering rate is known reasonably well from comparison of observed crater frequencies with radiometric ages. Attempts to obtain a cratering rate for Mars have usually been based on calculation of the relative flux of asteroidal and cometary bodies on Mars and the Moon.The asteroidal flux on Mars cannot be obtained in a simple way from the observed number of Mars-crossing asteroids, i.e. those asteroids with perihelia within the orbit of Mars. Calculations of the secular perturbations of these asteroids by several authors, particularly williams, has shown that most of these bodies rarely come near even to Mars' aphelion when they are in the vicinity of the ecliptic plane, and their contribution to the Martian meteoroid flux is much smaller than has been commonly stated. Ring asteroids in the vicinity of the secular resonances discovered by Williams, high velocity fragments of asteroids on the inner edge of the asteroid belt, and possibly objects obtained from the 2:1 Kirkwood gap by a process described by Zimmerman and Wetherill are probably of greater importance in the 103-106 g meteoroid size range but are much less important in the production of large craters. Calculations of the Martian asteroidal and cometary impact rate are made, but the present unavoidable uncertainties in the results of these calculations result in their being of little value in establishing a Martian chronology. Suggestions for improving this situation are discussed.Paper presented at the Lunar Science Institute Conference on Geophysical and Geochemical Exploration of the Moon and Planets, January 10–12, 1973.  相似文献   

2.
Clark R. Chapman 《Icarus》1974,22(3):272-291
Computerized cratering-obliteration models are developed for use in interpreting planetary surface histories in terms of the diameter-frequency relations for craters classified by morphology. An application is made to a portion of the lunar uplands, revealing several episodes of blanketing, presumably due to the formation of some of the major basins.Application to Martian craters leads to the following picture of Martian cratering and obliteration history. During a probable period of intense early bombardment, craters were degraded by two processes: a depositional-type process connected with the declining cratering rate, and a process tending to flatten the largest craters (e.g., isostatic adjustment). During late stages of the early bombardment, or subsequent to it, there occurred a major relative episode of obliteration (probably atmosphere related), but it ceased concurrently with the massive (presumably volcanic) resurfacing of the cratered plains. Subsequent resurfacing episodes have occurred in the smooth plain terrains, but obliteration processes have been virtually absent in the low-latitude cratered terrains.Recent global Martian cratering interpretations of Hartmann and Soderblom are compared. Absolute cratering chronologies are only so good as knowledge of the absolute cratering flux on Mars. The crater data of Arvidson, Mutch, and Jones do not confirm the basis, whereby Soderblom requires the dominant Martian crater obliteration process to be coincident in time with the early bombardment. If the asteroidal-cometary impact flux on Mars has averaged five times the lunar flux during post-lunar-mare epochs, then the obliterative episode lasted about half a billion years and occurred about 1.5 × 109 yr ago.  相似文献   

3.
Models of the solar nebula suggest that the mass of solid matter which condensed in the region of Mars and the asteroids was much greater than the amount now present. Bombardment by a primordial population of asteroidal bodies originating near Jupiter's orbit could preferentially remove matter from this region, without significant effects in the Earth's zone. A “critical velocity” exists, for which they can be ejected from the solar system by Jupiter. The minimum perihelion attainable at this velocity lies between the orbits of Mars and the Earth. The lifetimes of Mars-crossing bodies are limited by collisions with Jupiter; Earth-crossers are ejected on a much shorter time scale. The total bombardment flux was at least two orders of magnitude greater in the zone of Mars than in that of the Earth. The flux at Venus and Mercury from this source was negligible. The cratering rate for Mars may have differed greatly from those of the other terrestrial planets for a significant fraction of the age of the solar system.  相似文献   

4.
The porous state of the early Martian regolith, due to constant impact gardening by the impactors of the heavy bombardment period means this surface layer should have been able to hold pockets of subsurface water that could be responsible for runoff channel formation upon exposure to the planet's surface. This explanation of the runoff channel formation/heavy bombardment time correlation early in Mars history indicates a warm paleoclimate is not necessary in explaining the presence of runoff channels.  相似文献   

5.
Studies of the internal structure of asteroids, which are crucial for understanding their impact history and for hazard mitigation, appear to be in conflict for the S-type asteroids, Eros, Gaspra, and Ida. Spacecraft images and geophysical data show that they are fractured, coherent bodies, whereas models of catastrophic asteroidal impacts, family and satellite formation, and studies of asteroid spin rates, and other diverse properties of asteroids and planetary craters suggest that such asteroids are gravitationally bound aggregates of rubble. These conflicting views may be reconciled if 10-50 km S-type asteroids formed as rubble piles, but were later consolidated into coherent bodies. Many meteorites are breccias that testify to a long history of impact fragmentation and consolidation by alteration, metamorphism, igneous and impact processes. Ordinary chondrites, which are the best analogs for S asteroids, are commonly breccias. Some may have formed in cratering events, but many appear to have formed during disruption and reaccretion of their parent asteroids. Some breccias were lithified during metamorphism, and a few were lithified by injected impact melt, but most are regolith and fragmental breccias that were lithified by mild or moderate shock, like their lunar analogs. Shock experiments show that porous chondritic powders can be consolidated during mild shock by small amounts of silicate melt that glues grains together, and by friction and pressure welding of silicate and metallic Fe,Ni grains. We suggest that the same processes that converted impact debris into meteorite breccias also consolidated asteroidal rubble. Internal voids would be partly filled with regolith by impact-induced seismic shaking. Consolidation of this material beneath large craters would lithify asteroidal rubble to form a more coherent body. Fractures on Ida that were created by antipodal impacts and are concentrated in and near large craters, and small positive gravity anomalies associated with the Psyche and Himeros craters on Eros, are consistent with this concept. Spin data suggest that smaller asteroids 0.6-6 km in size are unconsolidated rubble piles. C-type asteroids, which are more porous than S-types, and their analogs, the volatile-rich carbonaceous chondrites, were probably not lithified by shock.  相似文献   

6.
Eugene I. Smith 《Icarus》1976,28(4):543-550
New central peak-crater size data for Mars shows that a higher percentage of relatively unmodified Martian craters have central peaks than do fresh lunar craters below a diameter of 30 km. For example, in the diameter range 10 to 20 km, 60% of studied Martian craters have central peaks compared to 26% for the Moon. Gault et al. (1975, J. Geophys. Res.80, 2444–2460) have demonstrated that central peaks occur in smaller craters on Mercury than on the Moon, and that this effect is due to the different gravity fields in which the craters formed. Similar differences when comparing Mars and the Moon show that gravity has affected the diameter at which central peaks form on Mars. Erosion on Mars, therefore, does not completely mask differences in crater interior structure that are caused by differences in gravity. Effects of Mars' higher surface gravity when compared to the Moon are not detected when comparing terrace and crater shape data. The morphology-crater size statistics also show that a full range of crater shapes occur on Mars, and craters tend to become more morphologically complex with increasing diameter. Comparisons of Martian and Mercurian crater data show differences which may be related to the greater efficacy of erosion on Mars.  相似文献   

7.
Abstract— Impact cratering is an important geological process on Mars and the nature of Martian impact craters may provide important information as to the volatile content of the Martian crust. Terrestrial impact structures currently provide the only ground‐truth data as to the role of volatiles and an atmosphere on the impact‐cratering process. Recent advancements, based on studies of several well‐preserved terrestrial craters, have been made regarding the role and effect of volatiles on the impact‐cratering process. Combined field and laboratory studies reveal that impact melting is much more common in volatile‐rich targets than previously thought, so impact‐melt rocks, melt‐bearing breccias, and glasses should be common on Mars. Consideration of the terrestrial impact‐cratering record suggests that it is the presence or absence of subsurface volatiles and not the presence of an atmosphere that largely controls ejecta emplacement on Mars. Furthermore, recent studies at the Haughton and Ries impact structures reveal that there are two discrete episodes of ejecta deposition during the formation of complex impact craters that provide a mechanism for generating multiple layers of ejecta. It is apparent that the relative abundance of volatiles in the near‐surface region outside a transient cavity and in the target rocks within the transient cavity play a key role in controlling the amount of fluidization of Martian ejecta deposits. This study shows the value of using terrestrial analogues, in addition to observational data from robotic orbiters and landers, laboratory experiments, and numerical modeling to explore the Martian impact‐cratering record.  相似文献   

8.
Abstract— Imaging of asteroids Gaspra and Ida and laboratory studies of asteroidal meteorites show that impacts undoubtedly played an important role in the histories of asteroids and resulted in shock metamorphism and the formation of breccias and melt rocks. However, in recent years, impact has also been called upon by numerous authors as the heat source for some of the major geological processes that took place on asteroids, such as global thermal metamorphism of chondrite parent bodies and a variety of melting and igneous events. The latter were proposed to explain the origin of ureilites, aubrites, mesosiderites, the Eagle Station pallasites, acapulcoites, lodranites, and the IAB, IIICD, and HE irons. We considered fundamental observations from terrestrial impact craters, combined with results from laboratory shock experiments and theoretical considerations, to evaluate the efficiency of impact heating and melting of asteroids. Studies of terrestrial impact craters and relevant shock experiments suggest that impact heating of asteroids will produce two types of impact melts: (1) large-scale whole rock melts (total melts, not partial melts) at high shock pressure and (2) localized melts formed at the scale of the mineral constituents (mineral specific or grain boundary melting) at intermediate shock pressures. The localized melts form minuscule amounts of melt that quench and solidify in situ, thus preventing them from pooling into larger melt bodies. Partial melting as defined in petrology has not been observed in natural and experimental shock metamorphism and is thermodynamically impossible in a shock wave-induced transient compression of rocks. The total impact melts produced represent a minuscule portion of the displaced rock volume of the parent crater. Internal differentiation by fractional crystallization is absent in impact melt sheets of craters of sizes that can be tolerated by asteroids, and impact melt rocks are usually clast-laden. Thermal metamorphism of country rocks by impact is extremely minor. Experimental and theoretical considerations suggest that (1) single disruptive impacts cannot raise the average global temperature of strength- or gravity-dominated asteroids by more than a few degrees; (2) cumulative global heating of asteroids by multiple impacts is ineffective for asteroids less than a few hundred kilometers in diameter; (3) small crater size, low gravity, and low impact velocity suggest that impact melt volume in single asteroidal impacts is a very small (0.01–0.1%) fraction of the total displaced crater volume; (4) total impact melt volume formed during the typical lifetime of an asteroid is a small fraction (<0.001) of the volume of impact-generated debris; and (5) much of the impact melt generated on asteroidal targets is ejected from craters with velocities greater than escape velocity and, thus, not retained on the asteroid. The inescapable conclusion from these observations and calculations is that impacts cannot have been the heat source for the origin of the meteorite types listed above, and we must turn to processes other than impact, such as decay of short-lived radionuclides or electromagnetic induction during an early T-tauri phase of the Sun to explain heating and melting of the parent bodies of these meteorites.  相似文献   

9.
Abstract— A model for emplacement of deposits of impact craters is presented that explains the size range of Martian layered ejecta craters between 5 km and 60 km in diameter in the low and middle latitudes. The impact model provides estimates of the water content of crater deposits relative to volatile content in the aquifer of Mars. These estimates together with the amount of water required to initiate fluid flow in terrestrial debris flows provide an estimate of 21% by volume (7.6 × 107km3) of water/ice that was stored between 0.27 and 2.5 km depth in the crust of Mars during Hesperian and Amazonian time. This would have been sufficient to supply the water for an ocean in the northern lowlands of Mars. The existence of fluidized craters smaller than 5 km diameter in some places on Mars suggests that volatiles were present locally at depths less than 0.27 km. Deposits of Martian craters may be ideal sites for searches for fossils of early organisms that may have existed in the water table if life originated on Mars.  相似文献   

10.
Images from Mars Global Surveyor and later images from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal that roughly half of the meteoroids striking Mars (at meter to few decameter crater diameters) fragment in the Martian atmosphere, producing small clusters of primary impact craters. Statistics of these “primary clusters” yield valuable information about important Martian phenomena and properties of interplanetary bodies, including meteoroid behavior in the Martian atmosphere, bulk strengths of bodies striking Mars, and the fraction of Martian “field secondary” craters, a datum that would improve crater count chronometry. Many Martian impactors fragment at altitudes significantly higher than 18 km above the mean surface of Mars, and we find that most bodies striking Mars and Earth have low bulk strengths, consistent with crumbly or highly fractured objects. Applying statistics of primary clusters at various elevations and independent diameter bins, we describe a technique to estimate the percentage of semirandomly scattered “field secondary” craters. Our provisional estimate of this percentage, in the diameter range ~250 m down to ~22 m, is ~40% to ~80% of the total impacts, with the higher percentages at smaller diameters. Our data argue against earlier suggestions of overwhelming dominance by either primaries or secondaries in this diameter range.  相似文献   

11.
3.5 billion years (byr) ago, when it is thought that Mars and Earth had similar climates, biological evolution on Earth had made considerable progress, such that life was abundant. It is therefore surmised that prior to this time period the advent of chemical evolution and subsequent origin of life occurred on Earth and may have occurred on Mars. Analysis for organic compounds in the soil buried beneath the Martian surface may yield useful information regarding the occurrence of chemical evolution and possibly biological evolution. Calculations based on the stability of amino acids lead to the conclusion that remnants of these compounds, if they existed on Mars 3.5 byr ago, might have been preserved buried beneath the surface oxidizing layer. For example, if phenylalanine, an amino acid of average stability, existed on Mars 3.5 byr ago, then 1.6% would remain buried today, or 25 pg-2.5 ng of C g-1 Martian soil may exist from remnants of meteoritic and cometary bombardment, assuming that 1% of the organics survived impact.  相似文献   

12.
Abstract— Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and Mars Odyssey data are being used to revise the Catalog of Large Martian Impact Craters. Analysis of data in the revised catalog provides new details on the distribution and morphologic details of 6795 impact craters in the northern hemisphere of Mars. This report focuses on the ejecta morphologies and central pit characteristics of these craters. The results indicate that single‐layer ejecta (SLE) morphology is most consistent with impact into an ice‐rich target. Double‐layer ejecta (DLE) and multiple‐layer ejecta (MLE) craters also likely form in volatile‐rich materials, but the interaction of the ejecta curtain and target‐produced vapor with the thin Martian atmosphere may be responsible for the large runout distances of these ejecta. Pancake craters appear to be a modified form of double‐layer craters where the thin outer layer has been destroyed or is unobservable at present resolutions. Pedestal craters are proposed to form in an icerich mantle deposited during high obliquity periods from which the ice has subsequently sublimated. Central pits likely form by the release of vapor produced by impact into ice‐soil mixed targets. Therefore, results from the present study are consistent with target volatiles playing a dominant role in the formation of crater morphologies found in the Martian northern hemisphere.  相似文献   

13.
Abstract— Four asteroidal bodies (the Martian satellites Phobos and Deimos and the main-belt asteroids 243 Ida and 253 Mathilde) have now been the subjects of sufficiently close encounters by spacecraft that the masses and sizes and, hence, the densities of these bodies can be estimated to ～10%. All of these asteroids are significantly less dense than most members of the classes of meteorites identified as being compositionally most nearly similar to them on the basis of spectral characteristics. We show that two processes can act, independently or in concert, during the evolutionary histories of asteroids to produce a low bulk density. One of these processes is the result of one or more impact events and can affect any asteroid type, whereas the other can occur only for certain types of small asteroids that have undergone aqueous alteration.  相似文献   

14.
Consequences of a heavy bombardment for the atmospheres of Earth and Mars are investigated with a stochastic model. The main result is the dominance of the accumulation. The atmospheric pressure is strongly increasing both for Earth and Mars in the course of an enhanced bombardment. The effect of atmospheric erosion is found to be minor, regarding escape during meteorite entry, in the expanding vapor plume, and ejection due to free-surface motion. The initial atmospheric surface pressure if comparable to the modern value turns out as a less important additive constant of the final pressure. Impactor retention and atmospheric erosion are parametrized in terms of scaling laws, compatible with recent numerical simulations. The dependence on impactor size, atmospheric and planetary parameters is analyzed among alternative models and numerical results. The stochastic model is fed with the net replenishment originating from impactor material and the loss of preexisting atmospheric gas. Major input parameters are the total cumulative impactor mass and the relative mass of atmophile molecules in comets and asteroids. Input size distributions of the impactor ensemble correspond to presently observed main belt asteroids and KBOs. Velocity distributions are taken from dynamical simulations for the Nice model. Depending on the composition of large cometary impactors, the Earth could acquire a more massive atmosphere, a few bars in terms of surface pressure, mostly as CO and CO2. For Mars accumulation of 1–4 bars of CO and CO2 requires an asteroidal ‘late veneer’ of the order of 1024 g containing 2% atmophiles.  相似文献   

15.
Ann M. Vickery  H.J. Melosh 《Icarus》1983,56(2):299-318
Shergottites, Nakhlites, and Chassignites (SNC) are a small group of achondrites with crystallization ages of approximately 1.3 AE. Although it has recently been postulated the these meteorites came from Mars, the dynamical difficulties of ejecting large meteorites from a major planet have caused us to examine the alternative possibility that they crystallized from an impact melt formed on a large asteroid. The kinetic energy necessary to produce a crater of a given size is estimated; it is postulated that 25% of this energy is partitioned into heat, and the heat is distributed in this model in a pattern suggested by the impact melt distribution in Brent Crater and the radioactivity distribution in Cactus nucelear explosion crater. The time evolution of the temperature by heat conduction for several locations around the crater is computed. Crystallization times for the more deeply buried impact melts are form 5 × 104 years for 60-km-diameter craters and increase for larger craters. These times are long enough for the observed cumulate textures to develop. Once solidified, these rocks may be ejected from the asteroid by subsequent cratering events. Since asteroidal escape velocities are low, ejection may be accomplished by shock pressures too low to produce petrologically detectable shock features. The SNC meteorites could thus have originated in the asteroid belt, their young crystallization ages being due to melting induced by impacts occurring on asteroids long after condensation from the solar nebula. This scenario avoids the dynamical difficulties of a major planet origin, but raises questions of how the SNC's acquired their chemical and REE characteristics. To date, there seems to be no internally consistent model for the origin of these strange meteorites. The impact melt hypothesis is offered as a rational alternative to a Martian origin. Neither hypothesis explains all the problems.  相似文献   

16.
The formation mechanism of layered ejecta craters on Mars has remained a topic of intense debate since their discovery. In this study, we perform a global morphological analysis of Martian layered ejecta craters using Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) images and Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) data. The study focuses on the ejecta morphologies and well‐defined distal rampart characteristics associated with 9945 layered ejecta craters with a diameter greater than 1.5 km distributed across the entire Martian surface. Data analysis based on the new database provides new information on the distribution and morphological details of the three major layered ejecta morphologies (single layer ejecta [SLE], double layer ejecta [DLE], and multiple layer ejecta [MLE]). Global analysis is applied to the latitudinal distribution of characteristic parameters, including the ejecta mobility, lobateness values, and onset diameter. Our survey of the distribution and characteristics of layered ejecta craters reveals that strong correlations exist between ejecta mobility and latitude, and there is a latitudinal dependence of onset diameter. Our study of Martian layered ejecta craters provides more detailed information and insights of a connection between the layered ejecta morphologies and the subsurface volatiles.  相似文献   

17.
Abstract— Although tenuous, the atmosphere of Mars affects the evolution of impact‐generated vapor. Early‐time vapor from a vertical impact expands symmetrically, directly transferring a small percentage of the initial kinetic energy of impact to the atmosphere. This energy, in turn, induces a hemispherical shock wave that propagates outward as an intense airblast (due to high‐speed expansion of vapor) followed by a thermal pulse of extreme atmospheric temperatures (from thermal energy of expansion). This study models the atmospheric response to such early‐time energy coupling using the CTH hydrocode written at Sandia National Laboratories. Results show that the surface surrounding a 10 km diameter crater (6 km “apparent” diameter) on Mars will be subjected to intense winds (?200 m/s) and extreme atmospheric temperatures. These elevated temperatures are sufficient to melt subsurface volatiles at a depth of several centimeters for an ice‐rich substrate. Ensuing surface signatures extend to distal locations (?4 apparent crater diameters for a case of 0.1% energy coupling) and include striations, thermally armored surfaces, and/or ejecta pedestals—all of which are exhibited surrounding the freshest high‐latitude craters on Mars. The combined effects of the atmospheric blast and thermal pulse, resulting in the generation of a crater‐centered erosion‐resistant armored surface, thus provide a new, very plausible formation model for high‐latitude Martian pedestal craters.  相似文献   

18.
Schroeter's ratios (ratios of the rim volume to the apparent volume) are determined for a sample of 29 large, degraded Martian craters selected from the Goldstone Mars radar altimetry data. On the average, the values of the calculated Schroeter's ratios are about two orders of magnitude smaller than the same ratios for fresh lunar craters. This indicates a severe rim volume deficit in degraded Martian craters and it provides an additional support to the notion of a widespread resurfacing of intercrater plains on Mars. Schroeter's ratios for degraded craters could provide a semi-quantitative measure of the effects of the modification processes that had been active on Mars and on the other planetary bodies.  相似文献   

19.
Abstract– Previous workers have proposed that a northern ocean existed early during Martian geologic history and the shorelines of that ocean would coincide roughly with the crustal dichotomy that divides the smooth, northern lowlands with the cratered, southern highlands. Arabia Terra is a region on Mars that straddles the crustal dichotomy, and several proposed shorelines are located in the area. Shallow marine impact craters on Mars likely would exhibit features like those on Earth, including characteristic morphological features that are distinctly different from that of craters formed on land. Common attributes of terrestrial marine impact craters include features of wet mass movement such as gravity slumps and debris flows; radial gullies leading into the crater depression; resurge deposits and blocks of dislocated materials; crater rim collapse or breaching of the crater wall; a central peak terrace or peak ring terrace; and subdued topography (an indicator of both age and possible flood inundation immediately following impact). In this article, these features have been used to evaluate craters on Mars as to a possible marine origin. This study used a simple quantification system to approximately judge and rank shallow marine impact crater candidates based on features observed in terrestrial analogs. Based on the quantification system, 77 potential shallow marine impact craters were found within an area bounded by 20°N and 40°N as well as 20°W and 20°E. Nine exemplary candidates were ranked with total scores of 70% or more. In a second, smaller study area, impact craters of approximately similar size and age were evaluated as a comparison and average total scores are 35%, indicating that there is some morphological difference between craters inside and outside the proposed shorelines. Results of this type of study are useful in helping to develop a general means of classification and characterization of potential marine craters.  相似文献   

20.
Population-density maps of craters in three size ranges (0.6 to 1.2 km, 4 to 10 km, and >20 km in diameter) were compiled for most of Mars from Mariner 9 imagery. These data provide: historical records of the eolian processes (0.6 to 1.2 km craters); stratigraphic, relative, and absolute timescales (4 to 10 km craters); and a history of the early postaccretional evolution of the uplands (> 20 km craters).Based on the distribution of large craters (>20 km diameters), Mars is divisible into two general classes of terrain, densely cratered and very lightly cratered—a division remarkably like the uplands-maria dichotomy of the moon. It is probable that this bimodal character in the density distribution of large craters arose from an abrupt transition in the impact flux rate from an early intense period associated with the tailing off of accretion to an extended quiescent epoch, not from a void in geological activity during much of Mars' history. Radio-isotope studies of Apollo lunar samples show that this transition occurred on the moon in a short time.The intermediate-sized craters (4 to 10 km diameter) and the small-sized craters (0.6 to 1.2 km diameter) appear to be genetically related. The smaller ones are apparently secondary impact craters generated by the former. Most of the craters in the larger of these two size classes appear fresh and uneroded, although many are partly buried by dust mantles. Poleward of the 40° parallels the small fresh craters are notably absent owing to these mantles. The density of small craters is highest in an irregular band centered at 20°S. This band coincides closely with (1) the zone of permanent low-albedo markings; (2) the “wind equator” (the latitude of zero net north or south transport at the surface); and (3) a band that includes a majority of the small dendritic channels. Situated in the southermost part of the equatorial unmantled terrain which extends from about 40°N to 40°S, this band is apparently devoid of even a thin mantle. Because this belt is also coincident with the latitutde of maximum solar insolation (periapsis occurs near summer solstice), we suggest that this band arises from the asymmetrical global wind patterns at the surface and that the band probably follows the latitude of maximum heating which migrates north and south from 25°N to 25°S within the unmantled terrain on a 50,000 year timescale.The population of intermediate-sized craters (4–10 km diameter) appears unaffected by the eolian mantles, at least within the ±45° latitudes. Hence the local density of these craters is probably a valid indicator of the relative age of surfaces generated during the period since the uplands were intensely bombarded and eroded. It now appears that the impact fluxes at Mars and the moon have been roughly the same over the last 4 b.y. because the oldest postaccretional, mare-like surfaces on Mars and the moon display about the same crater density. If so, the nearness of Mars to the asteroid belt has not generated a flux 10 to 25 times greater than the lunar flux. Whereas the lunar maria show a variation of about a factor of three in crater density from the oldest to the youngest major units, analogous surfaces on Mars show a variation between 30 and 50. This implies that periods of active eolian erosion, tectonic evolution, volcanic eruption, and possibly fluvial modification have been scattered throughout Martian history since the formation and degradation of the martian uplands and not confined to small, ancient or recent, epochs. These processes are surely active on the planet today.  相似文献   

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