Mars in the aftermath of a colossal impact

The abundance of highly siderophile elements (HSEs) inferred for Mars' mantle from martian meteorites implies a Late Veneer (LV) mass addition of ~0.8 wt% with broadly chondritic composition. Late accretion to Mars by a differentiated Ceres-sized (~1000 km diameter) object can account for part...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2019-06
Main Authors: Yin Woo, Jason Man, Genda, Hidenori, Brasser, Ramon, Mojzsis, Stephen J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmosphere
Atmospheric models
Computational fluid dynamics
Computer simulation
Deposition
Fluid flow
Geochronology
Hail
Mapping
Mars
Meteors & meteorites
Planetary geology
Planetary mantles
Smooth particle hydrodynamics
SNC meteorites
Surface water
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Summary:The abundance of highly siderophile elements (HSEs) inferred for Mars' mantle from martian meteorites implies a Late Veneer (LV) mass addition of ~0.8 wt% with broadly chondritic composition. Late accretion to Mars by a differentiated Ceres-sized (~1000 km diameter) object can account for part of the requisite LV mass, and geochronological constraints suggests that this must have occurred no later than ca. 4480 Ma. Here, we analyze the outcome of the hypothetical LV giant impact to Mars with smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations together with analytical theory. Results show that, in general about 50% of the impactor's metallic core shatters into ~10m fragments that subsequently fragment into sub-mm metallic hail at re-accretion. This returns a promising delivery of HSEs into martian mantle compared to either a head-on and hit-and-run collision; in both cases,
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1906.08904