Affiliation:
1. Institute of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System School of Earth and Space Sciences Peking University Beijing China
2. State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences Macau University of Science and Technology Macau China
3. CAS Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetology Hefei China
4. Department of Physics Institute for Computational Cosmology Durham University Durham UK
Abstract
AbstractThe production, distribution, and evolution of lunar regolith are critical in deciphering the lunar bombardment history and comprehending the transport of materials across the lunar surface, which are still not well understood. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive investigation of factors influencing the production and distribution of lunar regolith by individual simple craters. Combining our results for the impact‐generated regolith volume with a lunar production function, we developed an analytical model to describe the regolith growth process. We found that the strength of bedrock significantly affects the crater size and hence the volume of regolith produced especially for subdecameter impactors. The regolith volume produced by an individual impact crater is quantitatively characterized as a function of crater diameter and preimpact regolith thickness. This regolith production is primarily determined by how much bedrock is shattered, followed by the impact‐induced volume change of target material and lastly by the regolith volume created by secondary cratering processes. When a single crater forms, preimpact regolith thickness greatly affects the regolith distribution pattern; a larger fraction of the regolith will be distributed outside the crater rim for a deeper preimpact regolith layer. Our regolith evolution model can serve as a good first‐order estimation of the regolith growth process that provides better constraints on the regolith buffering trend than previous studies. This model also suggests that, when ignoring the contribution from large, distant impacts, the regolith growth process is dominated by impact craters at scales from a meter to a few hectometers.
Funder
Data Center of Management Science, National Natural Science Foundation of China - Peking University
National Key Research and Development Program of China
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Subject
Space and Planetary Science,Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous),Geochemistry and Petrology,Geophysics
Cited by
2 articles.
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