Regolith without age? High-resolution regolith depth measurements across lunar maria

IF 3 2区物理与天体物理 Q2 ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS

Icarus Pub Date : 2025-09-06 DOI:10.1016/j.icarus.2025.116790

Elizabeth F.M. Atang

引用次数: 0

Abstract

In this work, we test the established hypothesis that lunar regolith depth increases with time because the surface is continually exposed to meteorite bombardment. If this hypothesis is correct, younger surfaces should have thinner regolith than older surfaces. Because many of the regolith depth studies in the literature are for surfaces older than 3 Gy, in this paper, we study Mare regions with a wide range of ages between 1.33 Gy and 3.88 Gy. To measure regolith depths, we used the small crater morphology method based on the work by Oberbeck & Quaide. We found median regolith depths between 1.6 m to 4.0 m across our study sites. Importantly, we did not find any correlation between the thickness of the regolith and the age of the surface within the Mare units we studied. We conclude by discussing whether this result represents a true lack of correlation, which would imply an incomplete understanding of regolith formation.

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没有年龄的风化层？高分辨率的月壤深度测量

在这项工作中，我们测试了既定的假设，即月球风化层深度随着时间的推移而增加，因为表面不断暴露在陨石轰击中。如果这个假设是正确的，年轻的地表应该比老的地表有更薄的风化层。由于文献中的许多风化层深度研究都是针对年龄大于3gy的表面进行的，因此在本文中，我们研究了年龄在1.33 Gy至3.88 Gy之间的Mare区域。为了测量风化层深度，我们使用了基于Oberbeck &； Quaide工作的小火山口形态学方法。我们发现，在我们的研究地点，平均风化层深度在1.6米到4.0米之间。重要的是，在我们研究的Mare单元中，我们没有发现风化层厚度和表面年龄之间的任何相关性。最后，我们讨论了这一结果是否代表了真正缺乏相关性，这意味着对风化层形成的理解不完整。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Icarus 地学天文-天文与天体物理

CiteScore

6.30

自引率

18.80%

发文量

356

审稿时长

2-4 weeks

期刊介绍： Icarus is devoted to the publication of original contributions in the field of Solar System studies. Manuscripts reporting the results of new research - observational, experimental, or theoretical - concerning the astronomy, geology, meteorology, physics, chemistry, biology, and other scientific aspects of our Solar System or extrasolar systems are welcome. The journal generally does not publish papers devoted exclusively to the Sun, the Earth, celestial mechanics, meteoritics, or astrophysics. Icarus does not publish papers that provide "improved" versions of Bode''s law, or other numerical relations, without a sound physical basis. Icarus does not publish meeting announcements or general notices. Reviews, historical papers, and manuscripts describing spacecraft instrumentation may be considered, but only with prior approval of the editor. An entire issue of the journal is occasionally devoted to a single subject, usually arising from a conference on the same topic. The language of publication is English. American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these.