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Research Articles
Submitted on August 19, 2002 Martian Meteorite Launch: High-Speed Ejecta from Small Craters
1 Department of Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona, 1629 E. University Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA; Raytheon Missile Systems, P.O. Box 11337, Bldg. 805, M/S L5, Tucson, AZ 85734-1337, USA. We performed high-resolution computer simulations of impacts into homogeneous and layered martian terrain analogs to try to account for the ages and characteristics of the martian meteorite collection found on Earth. We found that craters as small as ~3 kilometers can eject ~107 decimeter-sized fragments from Mars, enough to expect them to appear in the terrestrial collection. This minimum crater diameter is at least four times smaller than previous estimates and depends on the physical composition of the target material. Terrain covered by a weak layer such as an impact-generated regolith requires larger, therefore rarer, impacts to eject meteorites. Because older terrain is more likely to be mantled with such material, we estimate that the martian meteorites will be biased toward younger ages, which is consistent with the meteorite collection.
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
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