Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Neukum, G..
In September 1977 a crater studies workshop was held for the purpose of developing standardized data analysis and presentation techniques. The present report contains the unanimous recommendations of the participants. Recommendations are devoted primarily to crater size-frequency data and refer to cumulative and relative size-frequency distribution plots and to morphological analysis.
The crater populations of 18 lunar light plains (Cayley plains) show a variation in relative ages by a factor of about 4 in crater frequency in regions in the surroundings of the Orientale and Imbrium basin, and by a factor of greater than 25 for more distant sites. Thus the idea of a moon-wide synchronism in the emplacement of the lunar light plains with the formation of the basins Imbrium or Orientale cannot be supported. Some light plains are younger than the youngest basin Orientale. Since these plains cannot have been emplaced by any other basin-forming event and local impact-derived origin can certainly be excluded, an endogenic (magmatic) origin is proposed for these plains. Age determination data (D sub L values) by Soderblom and Lebofsky (1972) and Soderblom and Boyce (1972) are shown to be correlated with own cumulative crater frequency data (N) for surfaces younger than about 3.8 b.y. It is found that D sub L is proportional to the 0.6 power of N. For ages greater than 3.8 b.y., the D sub L data by those authors, especially their light plains data, are incompatible with the present crater frequency data.
The lunar microcrater phenomenology is described. The morphology of the lunar craters is in almost all aspects simulated in laboratory experiments in the diameter range from less than 1 nu to several millimeters and up to 60 km/s impact velocity. An empirically derived formula is given for the conversion of crater diameters into projectile diameters and masses for given impact velocities and projectile and target densities. The production size frequency distribution for lunar craters in the crater size range from approximately 1 nu to several millimeters in diameter is derived from various microcrater measurements within a factor of up to 5. Particle track exposure age measurements for a variety of lunar samples have been performed. They allow the conversion of the lunar crater size frequency production distributions into particle fluxes. The development of crater populations on lunar rocks under self-destruction by subsequent meteoroid impacts and crater overlap is discussed and theoretically described. Erosion rates on lunar rocks on the order of several millimeters per 10 yr are calculated. Chemical investigations of the glass linings of lunar craters yield clear evidence of admixture of projectile material only in one case, where the remnants of an iron-nickel micrometeorite have been identified.
In view of the discrepancies in published crater frequency data, effects modifying production size distributions of impact craters are discussed. The resulting criteria are applied to the determination of the size distributions of unmodified impact crater populations in selected lunar regions of different ages. The measured cumulative crater frequencies are used to obtain a general calibration size distribution curve by a normalization procedure. Deviations of measured size distributions from the calibration distribution are strongly suggestive of the existence of processes having modified the primary impact crater population.
(For abstract see issue 03, p. 459, Accession no. A75-13187)
Approximately 10,000 microcraters were investigated using binocular microscope techniques on fifteen Apollo 16 rocks: crystalline rocks 60315, 60335, 61156, 62235, 62295, and 68415; breccias 60016, 61015, 61175, 66075, and 69935; and glass surfaces 60015, 60095, 60135, and 64455. Diameter measurements of the central glass-lined pits and surrounding spall zones were made. Ratios of spall to pit diameters may range from 3.0 to 4.5 for different rock surfaces. Crater size distributions obtained for production surfaces confirm and extend to larger crater sizes data published previously. The crater size distribution on lunar rocks in the pit diameter range, 10 to 1000 microns, is shown to depend on the average angle of impact which is a function of the exposure geometry. In contrast to results of earlier studies, a wide range of crater densities was observed on relatively heavily cratered surfaces.
Screws 9 and 23 from Surveyor 3 were examined with a scanning electron microscope for micrometeorite impact features. Six craters on one of the screws appear to be low velocity impact craters, and a flux for about 0.12 sq cm was calculated to be 0.005/sq m/sec for particle diameter or = 1 micron. Two interpretations are considered: (1) The impacts were produced by interplanetary particles and the flux indicates that deviation from the normal distribution exists only for particles below 1 micron in diameter. (2) Most of the craters were produced by secondary lunar debris, and the flux represents the upper limit for interplanetary particles.