Engineering topics

Schaber, Gerald G.

Publications and source records attributed to Schaber, Gerald G..

18 records

NASA NTRS1995

Use of AIRSAR to identify woody shrub invasion and other indicators of desertification in the Jornada LTER

The replacement of semidesert grassland by woody shrubland is a widespread form of desertification. This change in physiognomy and species composition tends to sharply reduce the productivity of the land for grazing by domestic livestock, increase soil erosion and reduce soil fertility, and greatly alter many other aspects of ecosystem structure and functioning. Remote sensing methods are needed to assess and monitor shrubland encroachment. Detection of woody shrubs at low density would provide a particularly useful baseline on which to access changes, because an initially low shrub density often tends to increase even after cessation of the disturbance (e.g., overgrazing, drought, or fire suppression) responsible for triggering the initial stages of the invasion (Grover and Musick, 1990). Limited success has been achieved using optical remote sensing. In contrast to other forms of desertification, biomass does not consistently decrease with a shift from grassland to shrubland. Estimation of green vegetation amount (e.g., by NDVI) is thus of limited utility, unless the shrubs and herbaceous plants differ consistently in phenology and the area can be viewed during a season when only one of these is green. The objective of this study was to determine if the potential sensitivity of active microwave remote sensing to vegetation structure could be used to assess the degree of shrub invasion of grassland. Polarimetric Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) data were acquired for a semiarid site containing varied mixtures of shrubs and herbaceous vegetation and compared with ground observations of vegetation type and other landsurface characteristics. In this preliminary report we examine the response of radar backscatter intensity to shrub density. The response of other multipolarization parameters will be examined in future work.

Musick, H. Brad↗

NASA NTRS1994

The global resurfacing of Venus

The impact cratering record on Venus is unique among the terrestrial planets. Fully 84% of the craters are in pristine condition, and only 12% are fractured. Remarkably, only 2.5% of the craters and crater-related features are embayed by lava, although intense volcanism and tectonism have affected the entire planet. Furthermore, the spatial and hypsometric distribution of the craters is consistent with a completely random one, including stochastic variations. Monte Carlo simulations of equilibrium resurfacing models result in a minimum of 17 times more embayed craters than observed, or unobserved nonrandom crater distributions for resurfacing areas between 0.03% and 100% of the planet's surface. These models also are not consistent with the number and nonrandom distribution of volcanoes, and the nonrandom distribution of embayed and heavily fractured craters. The constraints imposed by the cratering record strongly indicate that Venus experienced a global resurfacing event about 300 m.y. ago followed by a dramatic reduction of volcanism and tectonism. This global resurfacing event ended abruptly (less than 10 m.y.). The present crater population has accumulated since then and remains largely intact. Thermal history models suggest that similar global resurfacing events probably occured episodically in the past. We show that neither the present level and style of geologic activity nor anything less than global resurfacing could have produced the observed cratering record. The effects of recent geologic activity are much less than those of the earlier global resurfacing event, when the record of all the early heavy bombardment and much of the later light bombardment was erased from the surface by massive volcanism and tectonic activity. Episodic regional resurfacing events that had global effects also occurred on Earth (e.g., the mid-Cretaceous superplume) and probably on Mars. On Mars they may have triggered the catastrophic releases of water that formed the outflow channels.

Strom, Robert G.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Crater destruction on the Venusian highlands by tectonic processes

It is apparent that few, if any, craters as old, or highly modified as Imbrian craters on the surface of the moon are present on the Venusian highlands, or indeed anywhere on the planet's surface. Degraded craters such as those seen on the Moon, Mercury, or Mars are conspicuously absent. Furthermore, virtually all the impact craters on the Venusian surface show modification only by extensional tectonics, whereas the Venusian highlands show modification by compression, strike-slip movement, and finally by extension. Presumably at an earlier time, the surface of Venus resembled the surfaces of the other inner planets. The relatively recent resurfacing event that produced the plains units may be a mechanism for covering the older craters in the plains, but these vast outpourings of lava cannot be invoked as a mechanism for covering the craters on the Venusian highlands. If the plains units had covered the highlands, the entire Venusian surface would appear to be as smooth as the plains units that are embayed by and, therefore, postdate the highlands. The last major tectonic events to affect the highlands such as those seen on Ovda Regio appear to be thrust faulting with consequent folding, followed by at least three episodes of strike-slip faulting and finally extensional faulting. To test whether such tectonic movements could have destroyed highlands crater, a preliminary experiment was conducted by using a Lunar Orbiter mosaic of the lunar uplands as an analog for the ancient Venusian highlands.

Pohn, Howard A.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Named Venusian craters

Schaber et al. compiled a database of 841 craters on Venus, based on Magellan coverage of 89 percent of the planet's surface. That database, derived from coverage of approximately 98 percent of Venus' surface, has been expanded to 912 craters, ranging in diameter from 1.5 to 280 km. About 150 of the larger craters were previously identified by Pioneer Venus and Soviet Venera projects and subsequently formally named by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Altogether, the crater names submitted to the IAU for approval to date number about 550, a little more than half of the number of craters identified on Magellan images. The IAU will consider more names as they are submitted for approval. Anyone--planetary scientist or layman--may submit names; however, candidate names must conform to IAU rules. The person to be honored must be deceased for at least three years, must not be a religious figure or a military or political figure of the 19th or 20th century, and, for Venus, must be a woman. All formally and provisionally approved names for Venusian impact craters, along with their latitude, longitude, size, and origin of their name, will be presented at LPSC and will be available as handouts.

Russell, Joel F.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Venus' impact-crater database: Update to approximately 98 percent of the planet's surface

A total of 912 impact craters between 1.5 and 280 km in diameter have now been identified on about 98% of Venus' surface. This total includes an additional 71 craters (mostly in the southern hemisphere) not in the crater inventory given in Schaber et al. for 89% of the planet. (Extrapolated to 100% of the surface, the inventory should consist of 930 craters greater than 1.5 km in diameter.) The total crater inventory for 98% of the planet is only slightly larger (912 versus 882) than that extrapolated from the inventory of 135 craters when only 15% of the planet had been mapped by Magellan. The remarkably consistent density of about 2.02 impact craters per 10(exp 6) sq km emphasizes the completely random nature of the crater population's distribution. About 400 craters recognized from Magellan mapping have been assigned names.

Schaber, Gerald G.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Bright crater outflows: Possible emplacement mechanisms

Lobate features with a strong backscatter are associated with 43 percent of the impact craters cataloged in Magellan's cycle 1. Their apparent thinness and great lengths are consistent with a low-viscosity material. The longest outflow yet identified is about 600 km in length and flows from the 90-km-diameter crater Addams. There is strong evidence that the outflows are largely composed of impact melt, although the mechanisms of their emplacement are not clearly understood. High temperatures and pressures of target rocks on Venus allow for more melt to be produced than on other terrestrial planets because lower shock pressures are required for melting. The percentage of impact craters with outflows increases with increasing crater diameter. The mean diameter of craters without outflows is 14.4 km, compared with 27.8 km for craters with outflows. No craters smaller than 3 km, 43 percent of craters in the 10- to 30-km-diameter range, and 90 percent in the 80- to 100-km-diameter range have associated bright outflows. More melt is produced in the more energetic impact events that produce larger craters. However, three of the four largest craters have no outflows. We present four possible mechanisms for the emplacement of bright outflows. We believe this 'shotgun' approach is justified because all four mechanisms may indeed have operated to some degree.

Chadwick, D. John↗

NASA NTRS1991

An overview of Venus geology

The Magellan spacecraft is producing comprehensive image and altimetry data for the planet Venus. Initial geologic mapping of the planet reveals a surface dominated by volcanic plains and characterized by extensive volcanism and tectonic deformation. Geologic and geomorphologic units include plains terrains, tectonic terrains, and surficial material units. Understanding the origin of these units and the relation between them is an ongoing task of the Magellan team.

Saunders, R. Stephen↗

NASA NTRS1990

On the nature and rate of resurfacing of Venus

Crrater production and obliteration are modeled for the plains of Venus, using (1) the observed distribution of Venus-crossing asteroids and comets; (2) viscous relaxation of crater topography; and (3) erosion and burial by atmospheric, volcanic, and tectonic processes. Crater lifetimes are assumed to be proportional to crater depths for both classes of obliterative processes although the individual criteria vary. An average crater retention age between 0.4 to 2.0 Gyr is estimated for plains, under the assumption that craters are produced and not removed. The range is driven by uncertainty in identifying degraded impact as opposed to volcanic craters. On the other hand, crater retention ages greater than about 1.6 Gyr are unlikely if viscous relaxation operates without loading of crater floor by burial. The preferred model has plains subject to crater production and obliteration processes that vary over both space and time.

Arvidson, Raymond E.↗

NASA NTRS1989

New evidence for global tectonic zones on Venus

Venera 15 and 16 spacecraft images show clear evidence of major crustal disruptions on Venus which have been interpreted to indicate crustal divergence. Complementary to the divergent zones are mountain belts that border the continent-like high terrains. The requisite transcurrent motions appear to be manifested as diffuse shear zones. The rift zones form an interconnected transpolar system which ties in with previously recognized equatorial disruption zones, suggesting a global tectonic network. Several independent lines of evidence suggest that the tectonism may be geologically young.

Kozak, Richard C.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Radar scattering mechanisms within the meteor crater ejecta blanket: Geologic implications and relevance to Venus

Simple impact craters are known to occur on all of the terrestrial planets and the morphologic expression of their ejecta blankets is a reliable indicator of their relative ages on the Moon, Mars, Mercury, and most recently for Venus. It will be crucial for the interpretation of the geology of Venus to develop a reliable means of distinguishing smaller impact landforms from volcanic collapse and explosion craters, and further to use the observed SAR characteristics of crater ejecta blankets (CEB) as a means of relative age estimation. With these concepts in mind, a study was initiated of the quantitative SAR textural characteristics of the ejecta blanket preserved at Meteor Crater, Arizona, the well studied 1.2 km diameter simple crater that formed approx. 49,000 years ago from the impact of an octahedrite bolide. While Meteor Crater was formed as the result of an impact into wind and water lain sediments and has undergone recognizable water and wind related erosion, it nonetheless represents the only well studied simple impact crater on Earth with a reasonably preserved CEB. Whether the scattering behavior of the CEB can provide an independent perspective on its preservation state and style of erosion is explored. Finally, airborne laser altimeter profiles of the microtopography of the Meteor Crater CEB were used to further quantify the subradar pizel scale topographic slopes and RMS height variations for comparisons with the scattering mechanisms computed from SAR polarimetry. A preliminary assessment was summarized of the L-band radar scattering mechanisms within the Meteor Crater CEB as derived from a NASA/JPL DC-8 SAR Polarimetry dataset acquired in 1988, and the dominant scattering behavior was compared with microtopographic data (laser altimeter profiles and 1:10,000 scale topographic maps).

Garvin, J. B.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Clotho Tessera, Venus: A fragment of Fortuna Tessera

Clotho Tessera, adjacent to southeast Lakshmi Planum, may provide additional evidence for lateral crustal motions, and a model for the origin of small tessera fragments. Clotho Tessera and Lakshmi Planum are so noticeably different, and in such close proximity, it is difficult to derive a reasonable model of their formation in situ. Squeezing of material out from beneath Lakshmi has been suggested as an origin for Moira Tessera, which is also adjacent to Lakshmi and 1400 km west of Clotho. However, a logical model of juxtaposition of the two different terrains, originally from points once distant, can be made for Clotho and Lakshmi (and perhaps other small tesserae as well). It is suggested that Clotho Tessera was once part of Fortuna Tessera, but was cut off by a transcurrent fault zone (the DLZ) striking perpendicular to the Sigrun rift and carried westward where it collided with Lakshmi Planum (forming Danu Montes). A gravity anomaly along the southern border of Lakshmi, in the area of Danu Montes, was interpreted as indicating subduction there, providing additional supporting evidence for the collision hypothesis. Diffusion of the DLZ with proximity to Sigrun Fossae may be due to either higher ductility near the postulated Sigrun rift, or to burial by flows away from the rift nearer to Valkyrie Fossae. Other possible examples of migrating tesserae occur elsewhere: small pieces of Ananke Tessera can be fit back together as though they had rifted apart, and the spreading apart of Ananke and Virilis Tesserae has been suggested because of their symmetric locations about the axis of an inferred spreading zone. Other tessera fragments appear to have been isolated by rifting, with little, if any, significant lateral motion (e.g., Meni and Tellus Tesserae, and Thethus and Fortuna Tesserae). The migrating terrain model for Clotho Tessera supports Sukhanov's interpretation of tesseral fragments as rafts of lighter crustal material.

Kozak, Richard C.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Tectonism on Venus: A review

Venus is more similar to Earth than to any other planet. It has elevated regions associated with marginal fold and thrust belts, fracture zones that extend tens of thousands of kilometers, crustal swells and shields that are hundreds of kilometers in diameter and 1 to 2 km high, and sublinear accumulations of volcanic cones and domes that stretch for thousands of kilometers across the plains. The Venusian surface is, however, distinctly different from Earth's in that: (1) its elevated terrains cannot be distinguished from its low plains on a hypsometric curve; (2) trenches have not been found plainsward of the marginal belts; (3) fracture zones bear no resemblance to mid-oceanic ridges; and (4) some features, such as the ridge-belt zone near 210 deg E, seem to have no terrestrial analog. Various theories about tectonism on Venus and Earth of other authors are reviewed.

Kozak, Richard C.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Volcanism on Venus: Large shields and major accumulations of small domes

The outer layers of the Venusian lithosphere appear to dissipate heat from the interior through mantle-driven thermal anomalies (hot spots, swells). As a result, Venus exhibits diverse forms of thin-skin tectonism and magmatic transfer to and extrusion from countless numbers of volcanic centers (e.g., shields, paterae, domes) and volcano-tectonic complexes (e.g., coronae, arachnoids). What is known about the distribution and morphologies of major Venusian shields is summarized, and the evidence for possible structural control of major accumulations as long as 5000 km of small volcanic domes is described.

Schaber, Gerald G.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Impact cratering and the surface age of Venus: The Pre-Magellan controversy

The average surface age of a planet is a major indicator of the level of its geologic activity and thus of the dynamics of its interior. Radar images obtained by Venera 15/16 from the northern quarter of the Venus (lat 30 to 90 degs) reveal about 150 features that resemble impact craters, and they were so interpreted by Soviet investigators B. A. Ivanov, A. T. Basilevsky, and their colleagues. These features range in diameter from about 10 to 145 km. Their areal density is remarkably similar to the density of impact structures found on the American and European continental shields. The basic difference between the Soviet and American estimates of the average surface age of Venus's northern quarter is due to which crater-production rate is used for the Venusian environment. Cratering rates based on the lunar and terrestrial cratering records, as well as statistical calculations based on observed and predicted Venus-crossing asteroids and comets, have been used in both the Soviet and American calculations. The single largest uncertainty in estimating the actual cratering rates near Venus involves the shielding effect of the atmosphere.

Schaber, Gerald G.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Large-scale topography of Io - Implications for internal structure and heat transfer

Recent stereographic methods have been applied to Voyager 1 images in order to determine the shape and large-scale topography of Io. The best triaxial figure of semiaxes of 1830.0, 1818.7, and 1815.3 kilometers is consistent with a differentiated satellite in hydrostatic equilibrium. It is suggested that many of the broad topographic swells and basins noted may be due to isostatic responses to thermal changes in the lithosphere-asthenosphere system. Results support the picture of increasing heat flow converting the basal lithosphere into a lower-density asthenosphere, resulting in isostatic uplift. It is shown that lithospheric thicknesses ranging from 5-100 km may results in elevation variations of up to 1 km.

Gaskell, Robert W.↗

NASA NTRS1987

The surface age of Venus: Applying the terrestrial cratering rate

The population of Venusian craters having suspected impact crater morphology has been reported from 115 x 10 to the 6th power sq km of the northern hemisphere of the planet with the estimated average age of the surface to be approx. 1 b.y. (+ or - 0.5 b.y.) on the basis of lunar crater production curves corrected for Venus. Such an old average age is somewhat difficult to reconcile with the similarity in size and mass of Venus and Earth and with Earth's high heat flow and crustal resurfacing rate. Given the present uncertainties in the role of both active and inactive comet nuclei in the cratering history of Earth, it is concluded that the average age of the observed surface in the northern hemisphere of Venus could be as great as the 450 m.y. mean age of the Earth's crust. The surface of Venus might be even older, but no evidence from the crater observations support an age as great as 1 b.y.

Schaber, Gerald G.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Cleopatra Patera on Venus - Venera 15/16 evidence for a volcanic origin

The nonconcentric nature, anomalous depth, and terraced morphology of the nested craters that compose Cleopatra Patera are more closely analogous to volcanic craters (calderas) than multiring impact structures. Associated deposits northeast and downslope of the Patera first recognized on Venera 15/16 radar images are interpreted as volcanic plains related to, and perhaps cogenetic with, Cleopatra. The plains lavas probably originated as effusions from a radial rift zone or ring fissures. Rim deposits surrounding Cleopatra are asymmetric along the structural fabric of the region, also indicating fissure-type eruptions. Finally, a volcanic origin not only is easily reconciled with the tectonic setting of the Patera, it is almost required by the correlation between the Patera and regional structural trend.

Schaber, Gerald G.↗

NASA NTRS1986

The megageomorphology of the radar rivers of the eastern Sahara

The Eastern Sahara is devoid of surface drainage; this unusual characteristic distinguishes its morphology from that of most other desert regions where running water dominates landscape development. A map derived from SIR-A/B and LANDSAT images and the literature, shows the major presently known paleodrainages in the Eastern Sahara. This compilation permits consideration of the key questions: Where did the radar rivers come from and where did they go? Analysis of SIR-A data led McCauley et al. to suggest that the radar rivers, because of their southwestward trends, once flowed into the Chad basin. This key North African feature is a regional structural low formed in the Early Cretaceous in response to initial opening of the South Atlantic. The problem of the origin of headwaters for the radar rivers was less tractable. The idea that the source areas of the radar rivers might originally have been the same as those later captured by the Nile was proposed tentatively. A more extensive review of the Cenozoic tectonic history of North Africa reveals no reason now to suppose that the Central African tributaries of the present Nile were ever connected to the large alluvial valleys in southwestern Egypt and northwestern Sudan. formed in the Early Cretaceous in response to initial opening of the South Atlantic. The problem of the origin of headwaters for the radar rivers was less tractable. The idea that the source areas of the radar rivers might originally have been the same as those (The Ethiopian Highlands) later captured by the Nile was proposed tentatively. A more extensive review of the Cenozoic tectonic history of North Africa reveals no reason now to support that the Central African tributaries of the present Nile were ever connected to the large alluvial valleys in southwestern Egypt and northwestern Sudan.

Mccauley, John F.↗