SEARCH · Engineering Papers
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
The accuracy of the most recent crustal thickness models of Mars is investigated along with their resolution. Evidence is presented of noise-like features in the maps and spectra that suggest the basic data only represent features down to resolutions of about 300 to 600 km. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.
MGS Electron Reflectometer data are used to probe the shape and variability of Mars ionosphere and to identify weak crustal magnetic fields within the Hellas basin. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.
Knowledge of the geology, style and time history of crustal processes on the icy Galilean satellites is necessary to understanding how these bodies formed and evolved. Data from the Galileo mission have provided a basis for detailed geologic and geo- physical analysis. Due to constrained downlink, Galileo Solid State Imaging (SSI) data consisted of global coverage at a -1 km/pixel ground sampling and representative, widely spaced regional maps at -200 m/pixel. These two data sets provide a general means to extrapolate units identified at higher resolution to lower resolution data. A sampling of key sites at much higher resolution (10s of m/pixel) allows evaluation of processes on local scales. We are currently producing the first global geological map of Europa using Galileo global and regional-scale data. This work is demonstrating the necessity and utility of planet-wide contiguous image coverage at global, regional, and local scales.
We report the mineralogy and Ar-Ar age of a spinel troctolite clast with a granulitic texture found in the Dofar 489 lunar meteorite. This anothositic breccia contained magnesian mafic silicates not common in ferroan anorthosites (FAN) from the Feldspathic Highlands Terrane (FHT) of Joliff et al. The Ar-Ar ages of most FANs in the Apollo sample collection from the Procellarum KREEP Terrane (PKT) and FHT of the near-side of the Moon were reset at around 3.9 Gyr. by the basin forming event of Imbrium. From the older Ar-Ar age of Dho 489, we propose that a large basin formation other than the Imbrium basin may have mixed deep crustal rocks such as spinel troctolites with "pure" anrthosites to produce a magnesian anorthosite brecca. This model is in line with a proposal by Bussey and Spudis, who reported that inner rings of large basins display massifs of nearly pure anorthosites.
The population of visible and buried impact basins greater than 200 km diameter revealed by high resolution gridded MOLA data and the cumulative frequency curves derived for these provide a basis for a chronology of major events in early martian history. The relative chronology can be given in terms of N(200) crater retention ages; absolute ages can be assigned using the Hartmann-Neukum (H&N) model chronology. In terms of billions of H&N years, the crustal dichotomy formed by large impact basins at 4.12 +/- 0.08 BYA [N(200) = 3.0 - 3.2] and the global magnetic field died at about or slightly before the same time (4.15 +/- 0.08 BYA) [N(200) = 3.5]. In this chronology, the buried lowlands are ~120 my younger than the buried highlands), approx. 160 my younger than the highlands overall and approx. 340 my younger than the oldest crater retention surface we see, defined by the largest impact basins.
The population of visible and buried impact basins > 200 km diameter revealed by high resolution gridded MOLA data and the cumulative frequency curves derived for these pvide a basis for a chronology of major events in early martian history. The relative chronology can be given in terms of N(200) crater retention ages; 'absolute ages' can be assigued using the Hartmann-Neukum (H&N) model chronology. In terms of billions of H&N years, the crustal dichotomy formed by large impact basins at 4.12 +/- 0.08 BYA (N(200) = 3.0-3.2) and the global magnetic field died at about or slightly before the same time (4.15 +/- 0.08 BYA (N(200) = 3.5). In this chronology, the buried lowlands are approx. 120 my younger than the buried highlands, approx. 160 my younger than the highlands overall and approx. 340 my younger than the oldest crater retention surface we see, defined by the largest impact basins.
The Kodiak Islands are located approximately 130 to 250 km from the Alaska-Aleutian Trench where the Pacific plate is underthrusting the North American plate at a rate of about 57 mm/yr. The southern extent of the 1964 Prince William Sound (${M-w}$ = 9.2) earthquake rupture occurred offshore and beneath the eastern portion of the Kodiak Islands. Here we report GPS results (1993-2001) from northern Kodiak Island that span the transition between the 1964 uplift region along the eastern coast and the region of coseismic subsidence further inland. The horizontal velocity vectors range from 22.9 $\pm$ 2.2 mm/yr at N26.3$\deg$W $\pm$ 2.5$\deg$, about 150 km from the trench, to 5.9 $\pm$ 1.3 mm/yr at N65.9$\deg$W $\pm$ 6.6$\deg$, about 190 km from the trench. Near the northeastern coast of Kodiak the velocity vector above the shallow, locked main thrust zone is between the orientation of PCFC-NOAM plate motion (N22$/deg$W) and the trench-normal (N3O$\deg$W). Further west, our geodetic results suggest the accumulation of shear strain that will be released eventually as left-lateral motion on upper plate faults such as the Kodiak Island fault. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the difference between the Pacific-North American plate motion and the orientation of the down going slab would lead to 4-8 mm/yr of left-lateral slip. Short-term geodetic uplift rates range from 2 - 14 mm/yr, with the maximum uplift located near the axis of maximum subsidence during the 1964 earthquake. We evaluated alternate interseismic models for Kodiak to test the importance of various mechanisms responsible for crustal deformation rates. These models are based on the plate interface slip history inferred from earlier modeling of coseismic and post-seismic geodetic results. The horizontal (trench perpendicular) and vertical deformation rates across Kodiak are consistent with a model that includes the viscoelastic response to : (1) a downgoing Pacific plate interface that is locked at shallow depths,(2) coseismic slip in the 1964 and (3) interseismic creep below the seismogenic zone. The change in orientation of the horizontal velocity vector occurs down-dip from the locked main thrust zone. In southern Kodiak, the coseismic slip in the 1964 earthquake was smaller than in the northern Kodiak region; yet, the horizontal, interseismic velocities as a function of distance from the trench are comparable to those in northern Kodiak. Based on the earthquake history prior to, and following the 1964 earthquake, we hypothesize that the plate interface in southern Kodiak slips in more frequent large earthquakes than in northern Kodiak.
This volume contains abstracts that have been accepted for presentation at the Workshop on Hemispheres Apart: The Origin and Modification of the Martian Crustal Dichotomy, September 30-October 1, 2004, Houston, Texas.
Linear negative gravity anomalies in Acidalia Planitia along the eastern edge of Tempe Terra and along the northern edge of Arabia Terra have been noted in Mars Global Surveyor gravity fields. Once proposed to represent buried fluvial channels, it is now believed that these gravity troughs mainly arise from partial compensation of the hemispheric dichotomy topographic scarp. A recent inversion for crustal structure finds that mantle compensation of the scarp is offset from the present-day topographic expression of the dichotomy boundary. The offset suggests that erosion or other forms of mass wasting occurred after lithosphere thickened and no longer accomodated topographic change through viscous relaxation.
The Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft has completed two Mars years in nearly circular polar orbit at a nominal altitude of 400 km. The Mars crust is at least an order of magnitude more intensely magnetized than that of the Earth, and intriguing in both its global distribution and geometric properties. Measurements of the vector magnetic field have been used to map the magnetic field of crustal origin to high accuracy. This most recent map is assembled from > 2 full years of MGS night-side observations, and uses along-track filtering to greatly reduce noise due to external field variations. Additional information is included in the original extended abstract.
Introduction: The Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft has completed three Mars years in nearly circular polar orbit at a nominal altitude of 400 km. The Mars crust is at least an order of magnitude more intensely magnetized than that of the Earth [1], and intriuging in both its global distribution and geometric properties [2,3,4,5]. We present here a new map of the magnetic field with an order of magnitude increased sensitivity to crustal magnetization. The map is assembled from > 2 full years of MGS night-side observations. The increased sensitivity and spatial resolution afforded by this new map invites geologic interpretation akin to that here-to-for reserved for aeromagnetic and ship surveys on Earth.
Understanding the fundamental age relationships of the different parts of the Mars Crustal Dichotomy is essential to fully understanding the events that shaped the early history and formation of the surface of Mars. A dominant question is what are the true relative ages of the Northern Lowlands and the Southern Highlands? Using MOLA data from the Mars Global Surveyor and Viking visual images, a dataset of both buried and visible crater diameters was created over a nine million sq km study area of a section of the dichotomy boundary stretching from Arabia Terra to Utopia Planitia. Cumulative frequency plots on a log-log scale were used to determine the relative ages for the Highlands, the Lowlands, and the Transition Zone, separately for the visible, the buried and the combined total (visible+ buried) populations. We find the overall Highland crater population in this area is slightly older than the Lowlands, consistent with previous global studies, but the Lowlands and Transition Zone are also very old and formed at roughly the same time. It appears that the formation of the Lowlands in this region formed contemporaneously with a large-scale resurfacing event in the Highlands, perhaps caused by the process responsible for the Lowland formation.
We have calculated admittance spectra using the spatio-spectral method [14] for Venus by moving the central location of the spectrum over a 1 grid, create 360x180 admittance spectra. We invert the observed admittance using top-loading (TL), hot spot (HS), and bottom loading (BL) models, resulting in elastic, crustal, and lithospheric thickness estimates (Te, Zc, and Zl) [0]. The result is a global map for interpreting subsurface structure. Estimated values of Te and Zc concur with previous TL local admittance results, but BL estimates indicate larger values than previously suspected.
Because physical and chemical processes of the past are determined from analysis of a preserved geologic record, little is known about terrestrial crustal processes of the first 500 Ma during the so-called Hadean Eon. What is known from direct measurements has been derived almost exclusively from the study of greater than 4.0 Ga detrital zircons from the Jack Hills, Western Australia. The geochemistry of these zircons has direct application to understanding the origin and evolution of the rocks during the Hadean because: (i) U-Th-Pb age determinations by ion microprobe suggests the presence of crust as early as 4.37 Ga, or shortly after lunar formation; (ii) high-resolution U-Th-Pb zircon depth profiles reported here reveal several episodes of zircon growth in the Hadean previously unrecognized; (iii) core regions of pre-4.0 Ga zircons with igneous compositions are enriched in O-18 and contain metaluminous and peraluminous mineral inclusions, both features indicative of S-type grainitod protoliths. Study of these ancient zircons provides a unique window into the first half billion years that permits assessment of the potential of the Hadean Earth to host an emergent biosphere.
Remote sensing plays a key role in the analysis of seismic crustal deformation. Recently radar interferometry has been used to measure one dimension of the strain fields of earthquakes at a resolution of centimeters. Optical imagery is useful in measuring the strain fields in both geographic dimensions of the strain field down to 1/20 of pixel size, and soon will be capable of high resolution. Visual observation of fault motion from space can also be used to detect fault motion from aerial photographs.
This viewgraph presentation reviews the use Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) in simulating the Crustal Dynamics of Earth's Surface. AMR simultaneously improves solution quality, time to solution, and computer memory requirements when compared to generating/running on a globally fine mesh. The use of AMR in simulating the dynamics of the Earth's Surface is spurred by future proposed NASA missions, such as InSAR for Earth surface deformation and other measurements. These missions will require support for large-scale adaptive numerical methods using AMR to model observations. AMR was chosen because it has been successful in computation fluid dynamics for predictive simulation of complex flows around complex structures.
Anorthosites occur ubiquitously within the lunar crust at depths of approx.3-30 km in apparent confirmation of the Lunar Magma Ocean (LMO) hypothesis. [1]. We will present recent chronological studies of anorthosites [2] that are relevant both to the LMO hypothesis and also to the lunar cataclysm hypothesis. Old (approx.4.4 Ga) Sm-Nd ages have been determined for some Apollo 16 anorthosites, and primitive initial Sr-87/Sr-86 ratios have been measured for several, but well-defined Rb-Sr ages concordant with the Sm-Nd ages have not been determined until now. Lunar anorthosite 67075, a Feldspathic Fragmental Breccia (FFB) collected near the rim of North Ray Crater, has concordant Sm-Nd and Rb-Sr ages of 4.47+/-0.07 Ga and 4.49+/-0.07 Ga, respectively. Initial Nd-143/Nd-144 determined from the Sm-Nd isochron corresponds to E(sub Nd,CHUR) = 0.3+/-0.5 compared to a Chondritic Uniform Reservoir, or E(sub Nd,HEDPB) = -0.6+/-0.5 compared to the initial Nd-143/Nd-144 of the HED Parent Body [3]. Lunar anorthosites tend to have E(sub Nd) > 0 when compared to CHUR, apparently inconsistent with derivation from a single lunar magma ocean. Although E(sub Nd) < 0 for some anorthosites, if lunar initial Nd-143/Nd-144 is taken equal to HEDR for the HED parent body [3], enough variability remains among the anorthosite data alone to suggest that lunar anorthosites do not derive from a single source, i.e., they are not all products of the LMO. An anorthositic clast from desert meteorite Dhofar 908 has an Ar-39-Ar-40 age of 4.42+/-0.04 Ga, the same as the 4.36-4.41+/-0.035 Ga Ar-39-Ar-40 age of anorthositic clast Y-86032,116 in Antarctic meteorite Yamato- 86032 [3,4]. Conclusions: (i) Lunar anorthosites come from diverse sources. Orbital geochemical studies confirm variability in lunar crustal composition [1, 5]. We suggest that the variability extends to anorthosites alone as shown by the Sm-Nd data (Fig. 2) and the existence of magnesian anorthosites (MAN, [6]) and "An93 anorthosites" [3,4]. (ii) Anorthositic clasts in lunar meteorites retain "high" Ar-Ar ages compared to Apollo anorthosites. This is perhaps a hint that "cataclysmic" impacts were on average less energetic in the mostly farside source regions of these meteorites than on the lunar nearside.
A somewhat unorthodox method for determining vertical crustal motion at a tide-gauge location is to difference the sea level time series with an equivalent time series determined from satellite altimetry, To the extent that both instruments measure an identical ocean signal, the difference will be dominated by vertical land motion at the gauge. We revisit this technique by analyzing sea level signals at 28 tide gauges that are colocated with DORIS geodetic stations. Comparisons of altimeter-gauge vertical rates with DORIS rates yield a median difference of 1.8 mm/yr and a weighted root-mean-square difference of2.7 mm/yr. The latter suggests that our uncertainty estimates, which are primarily based on an assumed AR(l) noise process in all time series, underestimates the true errors. Several sources of additional error are discussed, including possible scale errors in the terrestrial reference frame to which altimeter-gauge rates are mostly insensitive, One of our stations, Male, Maldives, which has been the subject of some uninformed arguments about sea-level rise, is found to have almost no vertical motion, and thus is vulnerable to rising sea levels. Published by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of COSPAR.