Published May 1, 2019
| public
Journal Article
The nature and origin of Charon's smooth plains
Abstract
Charon displays extensive plains that cover the equatorial area and south to the terminator on the sub-Pluto hemisphere observed by New Horizons. We hypothesize that these plains are a result of Charon's global extension and early subsurface ocean yielding a large cryoflow that completely resurfaced this area leaving the plains and other features that we observe today. The cryoflow consisted of ammonia-rich material, and could have resurfaced this area either by cryovolcanic effusion similar to lunar maria emplacement or a mechanism similar to magmatic stoping where lithospheric blocks foundered. Geological observations, modeling of possible flow rheology, and an analysis of rille orientations support these hypotheses.
Additional Information
© 2018 Published by Elsevier Inc. Received 17 May 2018, Revised 6 December 2018, Accepted 18 December 2018, Available online 21 January 2019. We would like to thank David P. O'Brien for his insightful and constructive reviews of this paper. We thank Brian Carcich, Orkan Umurhan, and Oliver White for their thoughtful early read-throughs. We are also grateful for the discussions with Jeff Kargel and Susan Sakimoto at the LPI Cryovolcanism Workshop in June 2018. This research has made use of NASA's Astrophysics Data System, the USGS Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers (ISIS), and the QGIS geographic information system (QGIS Development Team, 2017). This material is based upon work supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration via the New Horizons Project (NASA contract number NASW02008).Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 92409
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.icarus.2018.12.036
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20190123-075153926
- NASW02008
- NASA
- Created
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2019-01-23Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field