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Radar scattering mechanisms within the meteor crater ejecta blanket: Geologic implications and relevance to VenusSimple impact craters are known to occur on all of the terrestrial planets and the morphologic expression of their ejecta blankets is a reliable indicator of their relative ages on the Moon, Mars, Mercury, and most recently for Venus. It will be crucial for the interpretation of the geology of Venus to develop a reliable means of distinguishing smaller impact landforms from volcanic collapse and explosion craters, and further to use the observed SAR characteristics of crater ejecta blankets (CEB) as a means of relative age estimation. With these concepts in mind, a study was initiated of the quantitative SAR textural characteristics of the ejecta blanket preserved at Meteor Crater, Arizona, the well studied 1.2 km diameter simple crater that formed approx. 49,000 years ago from the impact of an octahedrite bolide. While Meteor Crater was formed as the result of an impact into wind and water lain sediments and has undergone recognizable water and wind related erosion, it nonetheless represents the only well studied simple impact crater on Earth with a reasonably preserved CEB. Whether the scattering behavior of the CEB can provide an independent perspective on its preservation state and style of erosion is explored. Finally, airborne laser altimeter profiles of the microtopography of the Meteor Crater CEB were used to further quantify the subradar pizel scale topographic slopes and RMS height variations for comparisons with the scattering mechanisms computed from SAR polarimetry. A preliminary assessment was summarized of the L-band radar scattering mechanisms within the Meteor Crater CEB as derived from a NASA/JPL DC-8 SAR Polarimetry dataset acquired in 1988, and the dominant scattering behavior was compared with microtopographic data (laser altimeter profiles and 1:10,000 scale topographic maps).
Document ID
19900003119
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Garvin, J. B. (Hawaii Univ. Honolulu., United States)
Campbell, B. A. (Hawaii Univ. Honolulu., United States)
Zisk, S. H. (Geological Survey Flagstaff, AZ., United States)
Schaber, Gerald G. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Evans, C. (Maryland Univ. Greenbelt., United States)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1989
Publication Information
Publication: Lunar and Planetary Inst., Abstracts for the Venus Geoscience Tutorial and Venus Geologic Mapping Workshop
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Exploration
Accession Number
90N12435
Funding Number(s)
PROJECT: RTOP 677-43-24
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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