Home from Away: The Earth as an Analogue for Understanding Planetary Geologic Processes

远方的家：地球作为理解行星地质过程的类比

• 批准号: RGPIN-2022-04182
• 负责人: Neish, Catherine
• 金额: $ 3.39万
• 依托单位: University of Western Ontario
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=751169
• 关键词: Home; Away; Earth; Analogue; Understanding

The planets and moons in our solar system represent a diverse set of worlds, shaped by different geologic processes. Studying their surface geology teaches us about how planets form and evolve over time, as impact cratering, volcanism, tectonism, and erosion shape the landscape. The best way to study the geology of distant worlds is to send humans or landers there, but this is a complex and expensive endeavour. Instead, most of the information we have about other planets comes from remote observations from Earth-based and orbital telescopes. To understand the geology of our planetary neighbours, we must understand how to relate remote sensing data to the physical and chemical properties of their surfaces. To do this, we can study analogue environments on Earth, where ground truth information is relatively simple to obtain. This ground truth can be correlated to corresponding remote sensing data and used to make extrapolations about the geology of other planetary surfaces. The long-term goal of my research program is to characterize the processes working to shape the landscapes of the planets and moons in our solar system, by conducting field work in a diverse set of terrains and comparing the observations to remote sensing data. This will be accomplished through three short-term objectives: 1. To understand how impact melt is emplaced around fresh lunar craters: Given the absence of erosion on the Moon, lunar impact craters serve as pristine laboratories for studying the impact cratering process. One feature that is commonly observed around fresh lunar craters is flow-like deposits of impact melt. We will examine lunar impact melt deposits with remote sensing instruments to constrain their composition, and compare the data to analogue environments on Earth. 2. To determine how impact craters are modified by erosion on Saturn's moon Titan: Quantifying the amount of erosion on other worlds is difficult, since the original surface topography is unknown. By studying impact craters on Earth, we can constrain the processes working to shape craters on other worlds. We propose to use data from small aerial drones to remotely identify impact melt in an eroded impact crater on Earth, and satellite imagery to characterize eroded impact structures on Earth and Titan. 3. To constrain how lava flows are emplaced on Mars: Volcanism is one of the most common geologic processes on Mars. To understand how Martian lava flows are emplaced and modified over time, we will characterize the surface roughness of a lava flow in Iceland with a backpack LiDAR system. We will compare this data to publicly available radar and thermal infrared images of the site. By carrying out these objectives, we will obtain valuable data that can be used to constrain the geologic processes that have shaped the worlds in our solar system. This, in turn, will teach us about the evolution of Earth and provide insight into how the planet will adapt to future geologic changes.

我们太阳系中的行星和卫星代表了一个由不同地质过程形成的多样化的世界。研究它们的地表地质告诉我们行星是如何随着时间的推移而形成和演化的，因为陨石坑、火山作用、构造作用和侵蚀作用塑造了景观。研究遥远星球地质的最佳方法是将人类或着陆器送到那里，但这是一项复杂而昂贵的努力。相反，我们对其他行星的大部分信息来自地球和轨道望远镜的远程观测。要了解我们的行星邻居的地质情况，我们必须了解如何将遥感数据与它们表面的物理和化学性质联系起来。为了做到这一点，我们可以研究地球上的模拟环境，那里的地面真值信息相对容易获得。这一基本事实可以与相应的遥感数据相关联，并用于推断其他行星表面的地质情况。我的研究计划的长期目标是通过在不同的地形中进行实地工作，并将观测结果与遥感数据进行比较，来描述塑造太阳系行星和卫星景观的过程。这将通过三个短期目标来实现：为了了解撞击融化物是如何在月球新陨石坑周围形成的：鉴于月球上没有侵蚀，月球撞击陨石坑可以作为研究撞击过程的原始实验室。在月球新陨石坑周围经常观察到的一个特征是流状的撞击熔体沉积物。我们将用遥感仪器检查月球撞击熔体沉积物，以限制其成分，并将数据与地球上的模拟环境进行比较。确定撞击坑是如何被土星的卫星土卫六上的侵蚀所改变的：量化其他星球上的侵蚀量是很困难的，因为原始的表面地形是未知的。通过研究地球上的陨石坑，我们可以限制在其他星球上形成陨石坑的过程。我们建议使用小型航空无人机的数据来远程识别地球上侵蚀的撞击坑中的撞击融化，并使用卫星图像来表征地球和土卫六上侵蚀的撞击结构。约束熔岩流如何在火星上形成：火山作用是火星上最常见的地质过程之一。为了了解火星熔岩流是如何随着时间的推移而形成和改变的，我们将用背包式激光雷达系统描述冰岛熔岩流的表面粗糙度。我们将把这些数据与公开的雷达和热红外图像进行比较。通过实现这些目标，我们将获得有价值的数据，这些数据可用于约束形成太阳系世界的地质过程。反过来，这将告诉我们地球的进化，并为地球如何适应未来的地质变化提供见解。