Lunar and Martian impact basins: Exposed records of terrestrial bombardment?
The unrecycled surfaces of the Moon, Mercury, and Mars preserve the very early history of impact bombardment and its effect on crustal evolution. Previous studies indicated that the post accretion impact flux by large bodies on Mars may have been dificient, but systematic studies recently have revealed that this deficiency is largely the result of active erosional and depositional processes during the first 0.8 by. Ancient Martian impact basins larger than 300 km in diameter are revealed by subtle but unequivocal topographic and structural control of drainage patterns. In addition, the largest basins have left a deep seated imprint of concentric and radial structural patterns that control the occurrence of most Martian volcanic and tectonic provinces. If 10(-6)/km(2) is considered to be a reasonable approximation for the density of impact basins ( 300 km) of the Moon and Mars, then the Earth should have recorded more than 500 impacts that resulted in basins larger than 300 km in diameter over its post accretion geologic history. If calibrated with the Moon, then most of these impacts occurred prior to 3.8 by.