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MOLA Topography of the Crustal Dichotomy Boundary Zone, MarsMars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) profiles frequently cross the crustal dichotomy boundary where the transition zone (TZ) between cratered highland terrain (CT) and lowland smooth plains (SP) is marked by mesas and knobby terrain. The detailed topographic character of the boundary zone is longitudinally variable, as is the geomorphology of the TZ. Some portions of the boundary are associated with an outer ring of the Utopia impact basin; MOLA topography is consistent with this. The regional character of the boundary topography is a 2-4 km step function from nearly flat SP to almost as flat CT. This rise has a regional slope of 1-2 degrees, 50-100 times that of the Cr and SP away from TZ, which suggests a significant change in crustal properties (thickness, composition or both) across the TZ. The overall topography is very similar to that at some passive continent-oceanic crustal margins on the Earth, with the seafloor allowed to adjust upward after removal of the overlying water. A possible temporal constraint on the CT/SP elevation difference comes from two MOLA profiles which pass through two large (150 km diameter) craters located at the boundary in Aeolis. The N and S rims of the more degraded crater are at the same elevation; north of the N rim the topography drops by greater than 2 km to the floor of the TZ. This crater predates the elevation offset between CT and TZ floor. The better preserved crater (Gale) has a N rim 2 km lower than its S rim, and appears to have been emplaced on a pre-existing regional slope of about I degree. Gale probably post- dates the elevation difference between CT and TZ floor. Based on the stratigraphy of the units in which these craters are found, the elevation difference appears to have been in place in the Mid to Late Noachian.
Document ID
19990111600
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Frey, Herbert V.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
E. H., Susan
(Universities Space Research Association Greenbelt, MD United States)
H., James
(Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Lanham, MD United States)
Date Acquired
August 19, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1998
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Exploration
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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