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Evidence for recent volcanism on Mars from crater counts

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Abstract

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 Mars1,2,3,4,5,6. They disagreed, however, on the age of the youngest volcanism7, 8. 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.

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Figure 1: Crater density on Arsia Mons.
Figure 2: Horst–graben structure concentric with Arsia Mons caldera rim.
Figure 3: Crater density in the area around Nirgal Vallis.
Figure 4: Crater density in the area around the crater Schiaparelli.

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Acknowledgements

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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, 85705, Arizona, USA

    William K. Hartmann

  2. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, 92191, California, USA

    Michael Malin

  3. Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, 85721, Arizona, USA

    Alfred McEwen

  4. US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, 94025, California, USA

    Michael Carr

  5. US Geological Survey, Flagstaff, 86001, Arizona, USA

    Larry Soderblom

  6. Cornell University, Ithaca, 14853, New York, USA

    Peter Thomas & Joseph Veverka

  7. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, 91125, California, USA

    Ed Danielson

  8. University of Toledo, Toledo, 43606, Ohio, USA

    Phillip James

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  1. William K. Hartmann
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  2. Michael Malin
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  4. Michael Carr
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Correspondence to William K. Hartmann.

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Hartmann, W., Malin, M., McEwen, A. et al. Evidence for recent volcanism on Mars from crater counts. Nature 397, 586–589 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/17545

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