Central Pit Craters in the Southern Hemisphere of Mars Rebekah DeVries Northern Arizona University Dept. of Physics

What are Central Pit Craters Central depression Volatile-Rich Crusts Mars Ganymede Callisto floor pits vs summit pits

Summit and Floor Pit Craters

Importance of Study Relationship to Crustal Volatiles Constraints on Formation Models Vaporization of Crustal Ice Collapse of Central Peak Excavation into Subsurface Weak (Liquid) Layer

Method Use THEMIS visible and daytime IR to identify central pit craters and determine location Use JMARS to measure crater and pit diameters Use GIS to plot locations of pit craters Conduct correlation studies

Preliminary Results and Future Work diameter range of Floor: 12.6 – 44.4 km Median: 20.5 Summit:6.1 – 40.9 km Median: 15.6 floor pits tend to be smaller relative to their parent craters than summit pits no strong correlation of pit occurrence with topography complete survey of central pit craters in southern hemisphere compare distributions with topography, geologic unit, etc. use results to constrain formation models

ANY QUESTIONS? Thank You A Special Thanks to Dr. Nadine Barlow, my wonderful and very patient Mentor. To the THEMIS team, without them, this project wouldn’t be possible To the NASA Space Grant Program for giving my this wonderful opportunity to explore the world of research! ANY QUESTIONS?