The impact origin and evolution of Chryse Planitia on Mars revealed by buried craters

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Pan, Lu
  • Cathy Quantin-Nataf
  • Sylvain Breton
  • Chloé Michaut

Large impacts are one of the most important processes shaping a planet’s surface. On Mars, the early formation of the Martian crust and the lack of large impact basins (only four unambiguously identified: Hellas, Argyre, Utopia, and Isidis) indicates that a large part of early records of Mars’ impact history is missing. Here we show, in Chryse Planitia, the scarcity of buried impact craters in a near-circular area could be explained by a pre-existing topographic depression with more intense resurfacing. Spatially correlated with positive Bouguer anomaly, this near-circular region with a diameter of ~1090 km likely originated from an impact. This proposed large impact basin must have been quickly relaxed or buried after its formation more than 4.0 billion years ago and heavily modified by subsequent resurfacing events. We anticipate our study to open a new window to unravelling the buried records of early Martian bombardment record.

Original languageEnglish
Article number4257
JournalNature Communications
Volume10
Issue number1
ISSN2041-1723
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2019
Externally publishedYes

ID: 251602684