Evidence for a Low Bulk Crustal Density for Mars from Gravity and Topography

Knowledge of the average density of the crust of a planet is important in determining its interior structure. The combination of high-resolution gravity and topography data has yielded a low density for the Moon’s crust, yet for other terrestrial planets the resolution of the gravity field models ha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inGeophysical research letters Vol. 44; no. 15; pp. 7686 - 7694
Main Authors Goossens, Sander J., Sabaka, Terence J., Genova, Antonio, Mazarico, Erwan M., Nicholas, Joseph B.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Goddard Space Flight Center American Geophysical Union 16.08.2017
John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Subjects
Banks (topography)
Bulk density
crust
crustal density
crustal thickness
Density
Electrical impedance
Evolution
Gravitation
Gravitational fields
Gravity
Gravity field
High resolution
Highlands
History
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Lunar craters
Lunar crust
Lunar surface
Lunar topography
Mars
Mars craters
Mars satellites
Mars surface
Mars volcanoes
Moon
Planetary evolution
Planetary interiors
Planets
Resolution
Satellite tracking
Satellites
Slope
Terrestrial planets
Topography
Topography (geology)
Volcanic activity
Volcanoes
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Summary:Knowledge of the average density of the crust of a planet is important in determining its interior structure. The combination of high-resolution gravity and topography data has yielded a low density for the Moon’s crust, yet for other terrestrial planets the resolution of the gravity field models has hampered reasonable estimates. By using well-chosen constraints derived from topography during gravity field model determination using satellite tracking data, we show that we can robustly and independently determine the average bulk crustal density directly from the tracking data, using the admittance between topography and imperfect gravity. We find a low average bulk crustal density for Mars, 2582 ± 209 kgm−3. This bulk crustal density is lower than that assumed until now. Densities for volcanic complexes are higher, consistent with earlier estimates, implying large lateral variations in crustal density. In addition, we find indications that the crustal density increases with depth.
Bibliography:GSFC
Goddard Space Flight Center
GSFC-E-DAA-TN77512
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007
DOI:10.1002/2017GL074172