Latitude dependence of Martian pedestal craters: Evidence for a sublimation-driven formation mechanism

We report on the results of a survey to document and characterize pedestal craters on Mars equatorward of similar to 60 degrees N and 65 degrees S latitude. The identification of 2696 pedestal craters reveals a strong latitude dependence, with the vast majority found poleward of 33 degrees N and 40 degrees S. This latitudinal extent is correlated with many climate indicators consistent with the presence of an ice-rich substrate and with climate model predictions of where ice is deposited during periods of higher obliquity in the Amazonian. We have measured key physical attributes of pedestal craters, including the farthest radial extents of the pedestals, pedestal heights, and the circularity of the pedestal margins. In conjunction with the geographic distribution, our measurements strongly support a sublimation-related formation mechanism. This is in contrast to previous hypotheses, which have relied on eolian deflation to produce the elevated plateaus. The identification of marginal pits on the scarps of some pedestal craters, interpreted to be sublimation pits, provide direct evidence for the presence of ice-rich material underlying the armored surface of pedestal craters. On the basis of our findings, we propose a formation mechanism whereby projectiles impact into a volatile-rich dust/snow/ice substrate tens to hundreds of meters thick overlying a dominantly fragmental silicate regolith. The area surrounding the resulting crater becomes armored. Pedestals extend to a distance of multiple crater radii, farther than typical ejecta deposits, necessitating an armoring mechanism that is capable of indurating the surface to a distance greater than the reach of the ejecta. Return to low obliquity causes sublimation of the volatile-rich layer from the intercrater plains, lowering the elevation of the regional terrain. This yields generally circular pedestal craters elevated above the surrounding plains. As a result, the armored surfaces of pedestal craters have preserved a significant record of Amazonian climate history in the form of ice-rich deposits

Martian pedestal craters: Marginal sublimation pits implicate a climate-related formation mechanism

Pedestal craters on Mars are defined by an outward-facing scarp forming a plateau perched tens of meters above the surrounding terrain. Their origin has been attributed to impact armoring of the surface and subsequent removal of inter-crater terrain by either eolian deflation or sublimation of an ice-rich substrate. We identified 2696 pedestal craters between 60N and 60S latitude; 98% are poleward of 33N and 40S. The majority of pedestal crater margins are smoothly sloped, but 3%, concentrated in Utopia Planitia and Malea Planurn, display distinctive marginal pits. These pedestal crater scarps are anomalously tall (usually >80-100 m) and the pits resemble sublimation depressions seen on Earth and elsewhere on Mars, providing evidence for sublimation of volatiles in the scarp, where the armored surface has tapered. The pitted scarps provide insight into the origin of the general pedestal crater population, favoring formation via deposition of a volatile-rich substrate, impact armoring, and sublimation of intervening volatiles. Crater densities and overlapping pedestal craters suggest multiple periods of emplacement and loss of these climate-related, latitude-dependent deposits throughout the Amazonian

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Impact of Substituents and Nonplanarity on Nickel and Copper Porphyrin Electrochemistry: First Observation of a Cu II

[Image: see text] Electrochemical studies of the oxidation of dodecasubstituted and highly nonplanar nickel porphyrins in a noncoordinating solvent have previously revealed the first nickel(III) porphyrin dication. Herein, we investigate if these nonplanar porphyrins can also be used to detect the so far unobserved copper(III) porphyrin dication. Electrochemical studies of the oxidation of (DPP)Cu and (OETPP)Cu show three processes, the first two of which are macrocycle-centered to give the porphyrin dication followed by a Cu(II)/Cu(III) process at more positive potential. Support for the assignment of the Cu(II)/Cu(III) process comes from the linear relationships observed between E(1/2) and the third ionization potential of the central metal ions for iron, cobalt, nickel, and copper complexes of (DPP)M and (OETPP)M. In addition, the oxidation behavior of additional nonplanar nickel porphyrins is investigated in a noncoordinating solvent, with nickel meso-tetraalkylporphyrins also being found to form nickel(III) porphyrin dications. Finally, examination of the nickel meso-tetraalkylporphyrins in a coordinating solvent (pyridine) reveals that the first oxidation becomes metal-centered under these conditions, as was previously noted for a range of nominally planar porphyrins

The Transition from Complex Crater to Peak-Ring Basin on the Moon: New Observations from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) Instrument

Impact craters on planetary bodies transition with increasing size from simple, to complex, to peak-ring basins and finally to multi-ring basins. Important to understanding the relationship between complex craters with central peaks and multi-ring basins is the analysis of protobasins (exhibiting a rim crest and interior ring plus a central peak) and peak-ring basins (exhibiting a rim crest and an interior ring). New data have permitted improved portrayal and classification of these transitional features on the Moon. We used new 128 pixel/degree gridded topographic data from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) instrument onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, combined with image mosaics, to conduct a survey of craters >50 km in diameter on the Moon and to update the existing catalogs of lunar peak-ring basins and protobasins. Our updated catalog includes 17 peak-ring basins (rim-crest diameters range from 207 km to 582 km, geometric mean = 343 km) and 3 protobasins (137-170 km, geometric mean = 157 km). Several basins inferred to be multi-ring basins in prior studies (Apollo, Moscoviense, Grimaldi, Freundlich-Sharonov, Coulomb-Sarton, and Korolev) are now classified as peak-ring basins due to their similarities with lunar peak-ring basin morphologies and absence of definitive topographic ring structures greater than two in number. We also include in our catalog 23 craters exhibiting small ring-like clusters of peaks (50-205 km, geometric mean = 81 km); one (Humboldt) exhibits a rim-crest diameter and an interior morphology that may be uniquely transitional to the process of forming peak rings. Comparisons of the predictions of models for the formation of peak-ring basins with the characteristics of the new basin catalog for the Moon suggest that formation and modification of an interior melt cavity and nonlinear scaling of impact melt volume with crater diameter provide important controls on the development of peak rings. In particular, a power-law model of growth of an interior melt cavity with increasing crater diameter is consistent with power-law fits to the peak-ring basin data for the Moon and Mercury. We suggest that the relationship between the depth of melting and depth of the transient cavity offers a plausible control on the onset diameter and subsequent development of peak-ring basins and also multi-ring basins, which is consistent with both planetary gravitational acceleration and mean impact velocity being important in determining the onset of basin morphological forms on the terrestrial planets