| Title: |
Evidence for recent volcanism on Mars from crater counts |
| Authors: |
Hartmann, William K.; Malin, Michael; McEwen, Alfred; Carr, Michael; Soderblom, Larry; Thomas, Peter; Danielson, Ed; James, Phillip; Veverka, Joseph |
| Source: |
Nature, 397(6720), 586-589, (1999-02-18) |
| Publisher Information: |
Nature Publishing Group |
| Publication Year: |
1999 |
| Collection: |
Caltech Authors (California Institute of Technology) |
| Description: |
Impact craters help characterize the age of a planetary surface, because they accumulate with time. They also provide useful constraints on the importance of surface erosion, as such processes will preferentially remove the smaller craters. Earlier studies of martian crater populations revealed that erosion and dust deposition are important processes on Mars. They disagreed, however, on the age of the youngest volcanism. These earlier studies were limited by image resolution to craters larger than a few hundred metres in diameter. Here we report an analysis, using new images obtained by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, of crater populations that extend the size distribution down to about 16 m. Our results indicate a wide range of surface ages, with one region—lava flows within the Arsia Mons caldera—that we estimate to be no older than 40–100 million years. We suggest that volcanism is a continuing process on Mars. ; © 1999 Macmillan Magazines Ltd. Received 16 September; accepted 14 December 1998. We thank G. Herres, G. Esquerdo, and, in Madrid, J. Anguita and M. de las Casas, for assistance with crater counts and data processing. We also thank D. Berman and G. Hartmann for editorial assistance. |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| Language: |
unknown |
| Relation: |
https://authors.library.caltech.edu/communities/caltechauthors/; https://doi.org/10.1038/17545; eprintid:58279 |
| DOI: |
10.1038/17545 |
| Availability: |
https://doi.org/10.1038/17545 |
| Rights: |
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess ; Other |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.674A41AD |
| Database: |
BASE |