California Insititute of Technology

Solar System Science

Problem Set 2 Solutions

Monday 14 April 2013

Problem 1: Cratering Ages

During Apollo 16s mission to the Moon, astronauts John Young and Charlie Duke traversed
about 20 km, picking up about 96 kg of Moon rocks along the way. One of those rocks has
now been classified as sample 61015. It was picked up near Nectaris basin on the Moon, and
has been characterized as an impact melt created during the Nectaris basin impact.

Figure 1: From lpi.usra.edu

In this problem, you will apply the concepts of radioactive dating and crater densities to
determine the average flux of impacts on the Moon since the formation of Nectaris basin.
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A) Suppose you measure the amount of samarium and neodymium in sample 61015. You
determine that one portion of 61015 has
has

147 Sm
62
144 N d
60

= 0.2516 and

143 N d
60
144 N d
60

147 Sm
62
144 N d
60

= 0.176 and

143 N d
60
144 N d
60

= 0.104752 and another

= 0.107603. How old is sample 61015?

143
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Note: The decay chain of the samarium-neodymium system is 147
62 Sm 60 N d + 2 with
a half life of about 1011 years. 144
60 N d is a stable isotope of neodymium. Scientists actually
used argon-argon dating to determine the age of sample 61015.
B) The majority of other collected rocks which are identified as impact ejecta on the Moon
have dates which are very similar to that of sample 61015. Discuss possible implications of
this finding.
C) The LOLA (Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter) instrument aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has determined that the crater density at Nectaris Basin is about 13514
craters with diameters greater than 20 km per 106 km2 . Another large basin, the Imbrium
basin, has an estimated age of about 3.8 Gyr and 28 20-km-or-larger craters per 106 km2 .
Neither basin appears to have lost craters due to erosion or volcanic fill since the time of
formation. How can you reconcile these two measurements?

Figure 2: Locations of Nectaris and Imbrium impact basins on the Moon

D) Sketch a cratering history of the moon.
E) How might you adjust your calculated cratering rate for the Moon so that it could be
applied to Mars?
Solution to A To determine the age of this sample we use,


daughter
stable


=
t

daughter
stable


+

parent
stable

(et 1)

(1)

where t is time since formation of the sample, and is the decay constant and is given by
where is the half-life of the decay chain. Here, the parent isotope is 147
= ln2
62 Sm, the

144
daughter isotope is 143
60 N d, and the stable isotope is 60 N d. If we were to plot the data given
forthe isotopic
ratios of the sample we would find that they fall on a line having a y-intercept


of

143 N d
60
144 N d
60

and a slope of (et 1). We will calculate the slope and solve for t:



143 N d
60
144 N d
60
t
e 1 =  147 
62 Sm
144
Nd

(2)

60

Therefore, the age of sample 61015 is 3.84 Gyr.

Solution to B The fact that the majority of other collected rocks which are identified
as impact ejecta on the Moon have dates which are very similar to that of sample 61015
suggests that there was a pronouned period with a high impact rate. In fact, this is called
the Late Heavy Bombardment.
Solution to C Based on the data, Nectaris seems to be slightly older than Imbrium.
This is further evidence that there was a period of high impact flux around the time of the
formation of Nectaris which tapered off shortly thereafter when Imbrium was formed.
Solution to D See figure 3

Figure 3: Sketch of the cratering history of the Moon.

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Solution to E To be applied to Mars, the Moons cratering rate will have to be adjusted
to account for Mars different location in the Solar System, its gravity, its atmosphere, and
its varying surface conditions over time.

Problem 2: The Great Escape

In this problem, well see why the Moon has a very thin atmosphere of sodium atoms but
virtually no atmospheric hydrogen.
A) Derive an expression for the most common velocity of (or the velocity at the peak of)
the Maxwell-Boltzman distribution.
B) Calculate the average thermal velocity of a hydrogen atom on the Moon. The Moons
daytime temperature is 400 K.
C) Calculate the average thermal velocity of a sodium atom on the Moon.
D) Derive an expression for the escape velocity of a planetary body. Calculate the escape
velocity of the Moon.
E) Sketch the Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution curves for hydrogen and sodium
on the Moon. Label the Moons escape velocity. Caption your graph, explaining why the
Moon has a tenuous atmosphere of Na but no H.
Solution to A The Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution is given by

f (v) =

m
2kT

 32

mv 2

4v 2 e 2kt

(3)

where f (v) is the probability of finding a particle with a speed near v per unit speed, m is
the particle mass, k is the Boltzmann constant, and T is the temperature of the system. For
3
m
simplicity, lets define A = 4( 2kT
) 2 . To find the most likely (or most common) velocity,
we will calculate df
|
= 0.
dv v=vth



2
2
mvth
df
m mvth
2
2kT
2kT
vth (2vth )
|v=vth = 0 = A 2ve
e
dv
2kT

2Avth e

2
mvth
2kT


1

2
vth
=

2
vth

2kT
m

m
2kT

(4)


=0

(5)
(6)

Therefore, the most common velocity vth =

2kT
m

Figure 4: Sketch of the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.

Solution to B For hydrogen on the Moon, T = 400K, k = 1.38 1023 J/K, and
m = 1.67 1027 kg.
Therefore, vth = 2.6 km/s.
Solution to C For sodium on the Moon, T = 400K, k = 1.38 1023 J/K, and
m = 1.67 23 1027 kg.
Therefore, vth = 0.5 km/s.
Solution to D To find the escape velocity on the Moon, we equate gravitational potential
energy with kinetic energy.
1 2
GM m
(7)
= mvesc
R
2
where G is the gravitational constant, M is the mass of the Moon, m is the mass of the
particle escaping, and R is the radius of the Moon. This yields
r
vesc =

2GM
R

Therefore, for the Moon, vesc = 2.4 km/s.

Solution to E See Figure 5
5

(8)

Figure 5: Most hydrogen atoms move faster than vesc while the vast majority of sodium
atoms move slower than vesc . Hence, there is no hydrogen on the Moon, but there is a
tenuous atmosphere of sodium.

Problem 3: Order of Magnitude Planetary Science

Order of magnitude estimation is a powerful tool to assess whether a hypothesis is worth
pursuing; if rough calculations can show that the predictions are far from the observations,
then detailed calculations arent really necessary and one can move on to more plausible
hypotheses. This method is extremely useful in planetary science, where observations are
usually no more precise than a factor of a few. We will now use it to tackle a simple
hypothesis: The oceans of Mars are all locked up in subsurface ice deposits.
A) Consider Figure 6, which shows the possible ancient shorelines of the primordial
Martian ocean. Given what is known of the elevations on Mars, e.g. from MOLA, estimate
the oceans total volume.
B) Now consider Figure 7, which shows the global distribution of subsurface ice. Estimate
the thickness of the subsurface ice layer necessary to account for all the water in the ancient
Martian ocean, assuming the water mass fraction is constant with depth. Remember: this is
order of magnitude estimation; an integral over the entire surface is probably not necessary.
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C) How plausible are your results from part b? Is our hypothesis viable?

Figure 6: The possible shorelines of ancient Mars, as shown in lecture 1.17 (Di Achille and
Hynek, Nature Geosciences 3, 2010).

Solution to A Knowing the elevations of the Martian surface, we can estimate an average
depth to the Northern Ocean. For example, the shoreline appears to be at 2500 m, the
deepest parts are at 4500 m, and the shallower parts are at 3500 m; from these
numbers we can say that the average depth of the ocean is around 1500 m. Note that we
are not including any other bodies of water on Mars, such as Hellas and Argyre Planitia,
as they are smaller than the Northern Plains; including them would affect our result by less
than a factor of 2.
The extent of the ocean can be found from looking at Figure 6. We see that the shorelines
go as south as the equator, but on average they seem to oscillate around 30 N. We can then
model the ocean as a 1500 m thick layer of water covering the planet north of 30 N. As this
thickness is far less than the planetary radius, we can model the volume of this ocean as
V = Adr

(9)

where A is the surface area covered by the ocean, and dr is the average depth of the ocean
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Figure 7: The percentage by mass of ice in Martian soil, as shown in lecture 1.18 (From
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2004-209)
(1500 m calculated above).
To find A, let us consider the area of a spherical shell in spherical coordinates:
Z

A=
0

R2 sindd

(10)

where R is the planetary radius of 3400 km, is the colatitude, and is the longitude.
Solving this integral gives area A = R2 . Note that, since this is order of magnitude
estimation, you can also arrive at a similar answer by just looking at the area and guessing.
Putting all these numbers together, we get an ocean volume V of:
V = R2 dr

(11)

Therefore, the volume of the primordial Martian ocean is about 51016 m3 .

Solution to B To determine the thickness of a susbsurface ice layer, we need to know
density of ice, which is 900 kg/m3 , which is close enough to waters density of 1000 kg/m3
that we wont care the result will not be drastically impacted by the difference. Therefore,
we must find a way to fit 51016 m3 of ice into the Martian subsurface. First, we must find
the area where most of the ice lies.
From Figure 7, we see that there is subsurface ice across the whole planet, but most of
it is concentrated to areas poleward of 60 . Using the same integral as in part a, but with 6
taking the place of 3 , we find the area north of 60 N to be:
2

A60 N =
0

R2 sindd

(12)

A60 N 0.25R2

(13)

Similarly, the ice trappend southward of 60 covers an area of 0.25R2 . The total area
of significant subsurface ice is 0.5R2 , or half of the area of the Northern Ocean.
On average, these areas have soil that is 33 % water ice by mass. If we assume that
the rest of the soil is basalt with density 3000 kg/m3 , then we can write:
Mw
1
=
Mb
2

(14)

Where Mw is the mass of water in a volume of Martian surface material and Mb is the
mass of basalt in the same volume. For a volume of 1 m3 , we have:
Vtotal = Vw + Vb
Mw Mb
+
w
b


1
2
+
Vtotal = Mw
w b

1
Mw
1
2
=
+
Vtotal
w b
Vtotal =

(15)
(16)
(17)
(18)

and we get a pseudo-density of water ice in the Martian soil poleward of 60 of 600 kg/m3 .
As before, V = Adr = 0.5R2 dr in our case. To take into account the new pseudo-

density, we must increase the total volume that will be taken up by the ice frozen from the
. We now calculate
Northern Ocean by a factor f of 1000
600
2f V
,
(19)
R2
and find that the thickness of the required subsurface ice layer dr is about 6 km.
As this all comes from estimation, the exact answer is not important, but it is clear that
we will need a several kilometer thick layer of entrained ice in order to contain all the water
that may have once existed in the Northern Ocean.
dr =

Solution to C Does a layer of ice 5-7 km in thickness beneath the surface seem plausible?
The answer is likely no. One reason is that the temperature probably increases with depth
due to internal heating, raising the temperature above the stability point of water ice. Also
important is the permeability of the material can water penetrate down to 5-7 km when
subduction is not present? It is unlikely that our hypothesis is viable. In fact, it is more
likely that most of the ocean was lost to space.

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