Abstract
ABSTRACTThe most recent comprehensive database of Martian impact craters was the result of the work of impact crater scientists (S.J. Robbins and B.M. Hynek) who carefully examined the available high-resolution imagery of Mars. Building on this previous work, we present the result of an alternative approach involving 56 planetary scientists and trained students. A web platform was designed for this purpose. All impact craters larger than 1 km in diameter were classified according to a simplified classification scheme, recording the primary or secondary nature of the crater, and the morphology of the ejecta (single, double, or multiple layered ejecta rampart sinuous [LERS], or low-aspect-ratio layer ejecta [LARLE]). In total, 8445 LERS craters, 24,530 partially buried craters, 55,309 secondary craters, and 288,155 craters in the category “standard” were identified. Our assessment differs for 8145 entries in the original database compiled by Robbins and Hynek, which are not considered to be impact structures. In this work, ~39,000 secondary craters have been associated with 108 primary craters. Coupled to the existing database, the database we propose here offers a complementary way to investigate the geological history of Mars. More specifically, the completion of layered ejecta crater morphologies down to 1 km and the connection established between secondary and primary impact crater sources will allow the implementation of statistical studies to reveal the spatial and temporal evolution of the impacted material characteristics. Thanks to the simplified classification we performed here, this version of the database can be easily used as a training data set for crater identification algorithms based on machine-learning techniques with the aim to identify smaller impact craters and to automatically define their morphological characteristics. Since it is not possible to confirm an impact structure from remote-sensing data alone, any Martian impact database at this stage remains subjective, and its assessment must be facilitated. The interface we developed for this participative project can be directly used for this purpose and for continuous updates and improvements of this work, in particular, with the latest high-resolution imagery releases such as the CTX global mosaic by J.L. Dickson and others, but also as a platform for building specific databases of craters or any other structures located in a particular region of interest.
Highlights
This association was added if the primary impact crater source could be identified according to the criteria developed by Robbins and Hynek (2011a, 2011b), and if the associated secondary population exceeded 50 impact craters
(4) All other impact craters: Craters that could not be attributed to one of the three previous categories were classified in a fourth category named “standard” in this study (Fig. 1D). This category may include impact craters superposed onto the surrounding ground, background secondary craters, and craters without ejecta, or with a blanket that was not continuous enough or sinuous enough to be classified as Layered ejecta rampart sinuous (LERS) or low-aspectratio layered ejecta (LARLE) craters
This may have led to a misinterpretation of crater morphology, but these misinterpretations should be limited to a low number of cases compared to the number of craters contained in the original database (Barlow, 2017)
Summary
Mars Crater Database: A participative project for the classification of the morphological characteristics of large Martian craters. Lyon 1 (UCBL), and École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (ENSL), CNRS, 69622 Villeurbanne, France 8Department of Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China 9Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble, University Grenoble Alpes, 38058 Grenoble, France 10Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), IRAP, UPS, 31400 Toulouse, France 11CNRS, IRAP, 9 Avenue du Colonel Roche, BP 44346, 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France 12Faculty of Science, Vrije University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, Netherlands 13Institut Universitaire de France, 75005 Paris, France 14Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (SNCF) Reseau, Engineering & Projects Headquarter, Railroad and Environment Department, Natural Hazards Division, 75014 Paris, France 15Faculty of Telecommunications, Technical University of Sofia, Boulevard Kliment Ohridski 8, 1796 Sofia, Bulgaria 16Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM), Université d’Aix-Marseille (UAM), CNRS, CNES, 13388 Marseille, France 17Laboratoire d’Études Spatiales et d’Instrumentation en Astrophysique (LESIA), Observatory of Paris, Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) University, CNRS, Sorbonne University, University of Paris, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon Cedex, France 18Laboratoire d’Astrophysique (AIM), University Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA), CNRS, F91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France 19Centre for Astrophysics Research, Department of Physics, Astronomy & Mathematics, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have