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

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

3. Summit and Floor Pit Craters

4. 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

5. 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

9. 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

10. 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?