By analyzing how far material ejected from an impact crater flies, scientists can locate buried glaciers and other interesting subsurface features.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - A team of planetary scientists has developed a promising new way to peer beneath the dusty surface of Mars and other planetary bodies.
A new study finds that ejecta blankets - the layers of rock and other material blasted out of a crater by an impact - can vary in size depending upon what materials are present beneath the impact point. The insight could help scientists spot buried glaciers and other important subsurface features using data from orbital satellites, the researchers say.
"Historically, researchers have used the size and shape of impact craters to infer the properties of materials in the subsurface," said Aleksandra Sokolowska, a UKRI fellow at Imperial College London. "But we show that the size of the ejecta blanket around a crater is sensitive to subsurface properties as well. That gives us a new observable on the surface to help constrain materials present underground."
Sokolowska performed the work while a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University, working with Ingrid Daubar, an associate professor (research) in Brown's Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary sciences and study co-author.
The research was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
