TY - JOUR
T1 - The geology of the Nawish quadrangle of Ceres
T2 - The rim of an ancient basin
AU - Frigeri, Alessandro
AU - Schmedemann, Nico
AU - Williams, David
AU - Chemin, Yann
AU - Mirino, Melissa
AU - Nass, Andrea
AU - Carrozzo, Filippo Giacomo
AU - Castillo-Rogez, Julie
AU - Buczkowski, Debra L.
AU - Scully, Jennifer E.C.
AU - Park, Ryan
AU - Crown, David A.
AU - Mest, Scott C.
AU - Federico, Costanzo
AU - Ammannito, Eleonora
AU - De Sanctis, Maria Cristina
AU - Raymond, Carol A.
AU - Russell, Christopher T.
N1 - Funding Information:
The funding for this research was provided by Italian Space Agency (ASI) through grant number I/004/12/0.Some co-authors were funded under NASA contract NNM05AA86 for the Dawn Discovery Mission. Authors also thank the NASA Dawn Science and Flight Teams at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Instruments' teams for delivering the dataset used in this study. The lead author is grateful to co-authors and colleagues who supported him in the difficult times after the loss of his father, who was always his most enthusiastic supporter, in life and work.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2018/12
Y1 - 2018/12
N2 - Herein we present the geology of the Nawish quadrangle, located in the equatorial region of dwarf planet Ceres, named after one of the most prominent craters of the area. Geologic mapping was based on the image mosaics and digital terrain models derived from Dawn Framing Camera data. Interpretation of geologic units was supported by supplemental data, such as the multi spectral color images from the Framing Camera, and the spectral parameters derived from the Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (VIR) data, as well as Dawn gravity data. There is not a primary feature that dominates the geology of Nawish quadrangle, but rather several terrains overlap, and their relations explain the geology of the area. Crater size frequency distributions show that Nawish quadrangle is dominated by two distinct time domains. The central and eastern part of the quadrangle is topographically elevated, which we define as cratered highlands, and contains the older domain. The western lowlands show two younger domains related to impact craters Kerwan and Dantu, including the Kerwan smooth material and Dantu ejecta. This variation of elevation within the Nawish quadrangle is more than the half of the global topographic altitude variation on Ceres. Analysis and comparison of the topography of the Nawish quadrangle with surrounding ones shows that this quadrangle is dominated by the topography of the rim sector of a large, >800 km ancient impact basin, most likely the putative Vendimia Planitia. The Nawish quadrangle thus represents a sector of Ceres which has not undergone large-scale, post-Kerwan, intermediate age-events, but rather represents a place on Ceres where a well-preserved relict of old cerean crust can be studied, together with ejecta from more recent impact events.
AB - Herein we present the geology of the Nawish quadrangle, located in the equatorial region of dwarf planet Ceres, named after one of the most prominent craters of the area. Geologic mapping was based on the image mosaics and digital terrain models derived from Dawn Framing Camera data. Interpretation of geologic units was supported by supplemental data, such as the multi spectral color images from the Framing Camera, and the spectral parameters derived from the Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (VIR) data, as well as Dawn gravity data. There is not a primary feature that dominates the geology of Nawish quadrangle, but rather several terrains overlap, and their relations explain the geology of the area. Crater size frequency distributions show that Nawish quadrangle is dominated by two distinct time domains. The central and eastern part of the quadrangle is topographically elevated, which we define as cratered highlands, and contains the older domain. The western lowlands show two younger domains related to impact craters Kerwan and Dantu, including the Kerwan smooth material and Dantu ejecta. This variation of elevation within the Nawish quadrangle is more than the half of the global topographic altitude variation on Ceres. Analysis and comparison of the topography of the Nawish quadrangle with surrounding ones shows that this quadrangle is dominated by the topography of the rim sector of a large, >800 km ancient impact basin, most likely the putative Vendimia Planitia. The Nawish quadrangle thus represents a sector of Ceres which has not undergone large-scale, post-Kerwan, intermediate age-events, but rather represents a place on Ceres where a well-preserved relict of old cerean crust can be studied, together with ejecta from more recent impact events.
KW - Ceres
KW - GIS
KW - Geologic mapping
KW - Geology
KW - NASA/Dawn
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U2 - 10.1016/j.icarus.2018.08.015
DO - 10.1016/j.icarus.2018.08.015
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85056471605
SN - 0019-1035
VL - 316
SP - 114
EP - 127
JO - Icarus
JF - Icarus
ER -