Mass wasting features on the Moon – how active is the lunar surface?
Mass wasting features on the Moon – how active is the lunar surface?
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/j.epsl.2013.06.015
复制
发表时间：
2013-08
影响因子：
5.3
通讯作者：
Zhiyong Xiao;Z. Zeng;N. Ding;J. Molaro
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Zhiyong Xiao;Z. Zeng;N. Ding;J. Molaro
月球上的质量浪费特征早已被注意到，但对其形态、几何或分布特征尚未进行系统研究。质量浪费对月球地形演化和表面侵蚀的影响尚不完全清楚。利用从月球勘测轨道飞行器获得的高分辨率图像和地形数据，我们发现月球上全球范围内持续发生质量浪费。流星撞击和月震是形成月球质量消耗特征的两个主要触发机制。我们选择了 300 多个月球质量消耗特征的例子，在研究了它们的形态、潜在的侵位模式和位移物质的大小后，将它们分类为坠落、流动、滑动、塌陷和蠕变。研究其所在地形的坡度和年龄分布，以估计质量消耗影响下月球表面的地形演化序列。由于质量浪费的不断重塑，月球表面地形随着时间的推移往往变得更加平滑，旧表面上发生的质量浪费事件较少。前蜜月期表面可能代表了关于质量消耗影响的倾斜角表面地形演化的最后阶段。月球表面的陨石坑密度随斜坡角度的变化而变化，因为斜坡上的表面侵蚀速率和风化层生成速率比平坦区域大。
Mass wasting features have long been noticed on the Moon, but there has been no systematic studies for their morphological, geometrical, or distribution characteristics. The effect of mass wasting on topographic evolution and surface erosion on the Moon is not fully understood. Using high-resolution image and topography data obtained from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, we found that mass wasting has been globally and continuously occurring on the Moon. Meteor impacts and moonquakes are the two major triggering mechanisms in forming lunar mass wasting features. We selected over 300 examples of lunar mass wasting features and classified them as falls, flows, slides, slumps, and creeps after studying their morphology, potential mode of emplacement, and sizes of displaced materials. The slope and age distributions for their host terrains are studied to estimate the topographic evolutionary sequence of the lunar surface under the effect of mass wasting. Due to continuous reshaping by mass wasting, surface topographies on the Moon tend to become smoother with time, with fewer mass wasting events occurring on older surfaces. Pre-Nectarian surfaces may represent the final stage of surface topographic evolution on slope angles regarding the effect of mass wasting. Crater densities on lunar surfaces vary with slope angles because the surface erosion rate and regolith production rate on slopes are larger than those on flat areas.