ESTIMATING THE SIZE OF LATE VENEER IMPACTORS FROM IMPACT-INDUCED MIXING ON MERCURY

Abstract

Late accretion of a of compositionally diverse planetesimals may introduce chemical heterogeneity in the mantles of the terrestrial planets. The size of the late veneer objects is an important control on the angular momenta, eccentricities, and inclinations of the terrestrial planets, but current estimates range from meter-scale bodies to objects with diameters of thousands of kilometers. We use a three-dimensional global Monte Carlo model of impact cratering, excavation, and ejecta blanket formation to show that evidence of mantle heterogeneity can be preserved within ejecta blankets of mantle-exhuming impacts on terrestrial planets. Compositionally distinct provinces implanted at the time of the late veneer are most likely to be preserved in bodies whose subsequent geodynamical evolution is limited. Mercury may have avoided intensive mixing by solid-state convection during much of its history. Its subsequent bombardment may have then excavated evidence of primordial mantle heterogeneity introduced by the late veneer. Simple geometric arguments can predict the amount of mantle material in the ejecta blanket of mantle-exhuming impacts, and deviations in composition relative to geometric predictions can constrain the length-scale of chemical heterogeneities in the subsurface. A marked change in the relationship between mantle and ejecta composition occurs when chemically distinct provinces are ~250 km in diameter; thus, evidence of bombardment by thousand-kilometer-sized objects should be readily apparent from the variation in compositions of ejecta blankets in Mercury's ancient cratered terrains.