Terrace Width Variations in Complex Mercurian Craters, and the Transient Strength of Cratered Mercurian and Lunar Crust

Abstract

Widths of slump terraces of complex craters can be used to determine the effective cohesion of the cratered region during crater collapse. We have measured terrace widths for complex craters on Mercury: these generally increase outward toward the rim for a given crater, and the width of the outermost major terrace is generally an increasing function of crater diameter. Similar observations apply to lunar complex craters, but the widths of the outermost slump terraces of Mercurian complex craters are less than those of similarly sized lunar complex craters. Using the terrace widths on Mercury and a gravity-driven slump model, we estimate the strength of the cratered region immediately after impact (specifically, during the modification stage of crater formation) to be ∼1–2 MPa. Comparison with the previous study of lunar complex craters by Pearce and Melosh indicates that the transient strength of cratered Mercurian crust is no greater than that of the Moon. The strength estimates only vary slightly with the geometric model used to restore the outermost major terrace to its precollapse configuration and are consistent with independent strength estimates from the simple-to-complex crater depth/diameter transition, in particular, the most recent depth/diameter study of Mercurian craters by Pike. Thus, contrary to previous work, the difference in “target properties” between Mercury and the Moon may be small, and systematic morphological differences between craters on the two worlds may be largely caused by the factor of 2 difference in surface gravity.