An exceptional grouping of lunar highland smooth plains: Geography, morphology, and possible origins

Robinson, M. S.; Thomas, P. C.; Plescia, J. B.; Denevi, B. W.; Burns, K. N.; Cisneros, E.; Henriksen, M. R.; Bogert, C. H. van der; Hiesinger, H.; Mahanti, P.; Stelling, R.; Povilaitis, R. Z.

doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2015.06.028

Cited by 18 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…For slowly rotating bodies, axisymmetric models of ejecta emplacement predict enhanced accumulation of ejected material at the antipode (Moore et al, 1974). In addition, crater-size frequency distributions yield a model age of ~26 Ma for the melt ponds, consistent with a late Copernican formation age (Robinson et al, 2015). This age is consistent with similar analyses of Tycho crater impact melts (22-74 Ma;Hiesinger et al, 2012;Zanetti et al, 2015), is too young for Jackson Crater, and is too old for Giordano Bruno (Robinson et al, 2015).…”

supporting

confidence: 82%

“…In addition, crater-size frequency distributions yield a model age of ~26 Ma for the melt ponds, consistent with a late Copernican formation age (Robinson et al, 2015). This age is consistent with similar analyses of Tycho crater impact melts (22-74 Ma;Hiesinger et al, 2012;Zanetti et al, 2015), is too young for Jackson Crater, and is too old for Giordano Bruno (Robinson et al, 2015). Although there are large uncertainties in the derived ages, they are all derived from crater size-frequency distributions of impact melt surfaces.…”

supporting

confidence: 62%

“…Robinson et al (2015) suggested impact melt as the most likely source of these materials and total melt volume is estimated to be 8 km 3 , which would require a source crater >20km in diameter. However, they also noted that the distribution over such a large area in hundreds of discrete occurrences is not typical of impact melts, which tend to form discrete melt ponds and veneers within and adjacent to the source crater ( Figure 1).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Distal ejecta from lunar impacts: Extensive regions of rocky deposits

Cahill

Carter

Neish

et al. 2017

Icarus

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supporting

confidence: 82%

supporting

confidence: 62%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Distal ejecta from lunar impacts: Extensive regions of rocky deposits

Cahill

Carter

Neish

et al. 2017

Icarus

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“…Bandfield et al (2017) suggested that this concentration of high-thermal inertia materials and melt deposits may be related to the formation of Tycho itself, which is of a similar inferred age to the antipodal deposit,~20-100 Ma (Robinson et al, 2016). These authors identified directionality in Figure 16.…”

Section: Tycho Antipodal Depositmentioning

confidence: 94%

Global Regolith Thermophysical Properties of the Moon From the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment

et al. 2017

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We used infrared data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment to globally map thermophysical properties of the Moon's regolith fines layer. Thermal conductivity varies from 7.4 × 10−4 W m−1 K−1 at the surface to 3.4 × 10−3 W m−1 K−1 at depths of ~1 m, given density values of 1,100 kg m−3 at the surface to 1,800 kg m−3 at 1 m depth. On average, the scale height of these profiles is ~7 cm, corresponding to a thermal inertia of 55 ± 2 J m−2 K−1 s−1/2 at 273 K, relevant to the diurnally active near‐surface layer, ~4–7 cm. The temperature dependence of thermal conductivity and heat capacity leads to an ~2 times diurnal variation in thermal inertia at the equator. On global scales, the regolith fines are remarkably uniform, implying rapid homogenization by impact gardening of this layer on timescales <1 Gyr. Regional‐ and local‐scale variations show prominent impact features <1 Gyr old, including higher thermal inertia (> 100 J m−2 K−1 s−1/2) in the interiors and ejecta of Copernican‐aged impact craters and lower thermal inertia (< 50 J m−2 K−1 s−1/2) within the lunar cold spots identified by Bandfield et al. (2014). Observed trends in ejecta thermal inertia provide a potential tool for age dating craters of previously unknown age, complementary to the approach suggested by Ghent et al. (2014). Several anomalous regions are identified in the global 128 pixels per degree maps presented here, including a high‐thermal inertia deposit near the antipode of Tycho crater.

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“…We compared slope mean, median, and standard deviation for our largest NAC DTM mosaic, Highland Ponds (centered at 41.8 °N, 167.4 °E; Robinson et al 2016 ), to slopes calculated from LOLA shots in the same region, calculated according to Rosenburg et al (2011) . The Highland Ponds DTM includes 27 individual stereo pairs covering ∼11,0 0 0 km 2 .…”

Section: Global Slope Distribution and Roughnessmentioning

confidence: 99%