Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_451-1
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Faint Dark Halo

Nataliya Bondarenko*
University of California – Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

Definition
A type of ▶ crater-associated radar-dark diffuse feature on Venus that is relatively small, is patchy,
and has irregular planform.

Category
A type of ▶ crater-associated radar-dark diffuse feature.

Synonyms
Faint radar halo

Description
Patchy radar-dark areas around impact craters of Venus. Faint halos seem to be certainly visible but
do not differ significantly in darkness from the neighboring plains (Basilevsky and Head 2002).
Some very faint remnants of dark deposits can be found on stretched images on many craters
classified as having no dark halo, so the boundary between the craters with no halo and with faint
halo sometimes may be disputable.

Interpretation
Faint dark halos (FH), like other ▶ crater-associated radar-dark diffuse features on Venus, are
apparent on radar images due to the presence of fine-grained material on the surface. These mantles
are expected to be rather thin (Bondarenko and Head 2004). They, supposedly, are remnants of dark
halos or ▶ radar dark parabolas. Some craters classified as having faint halos exhibit associated
▶ emissivity parabolas (Bondarenko and Head 2004); thus, in these cases the apparent faintness of
the halo is caused by originally thin mantle rather than by its degradation.

*Email: nbondar@ucsc.edu

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Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_451-1
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Fig. 1 Forty eight kilometer-diameter crater Deken at 47.13 N, 288.48 E with a faint radar-dark halo (Basilevsky and
Head 2002) Magellan radar C1 MIDRP 45N286;1 (NASA/JPL/USGS)

Formation
For large craters faint halos occur as almost totally degraded distant crater ejecta due to the removal
of mantle material from the site of initial deposition by atmospheric winds and/or chemical
weathering. Loose material can be kept in topographic depressions (smaller than the spatial
resolution of radar images) and cause partial radar darkening. The presence of faint halo near
small craters could be also just observational effect for thin mantles.

Age
The age of original emplacement of the halo material is equal to the age of the associated crater. The
degradation process producing the faint dark halo does not have any distinctive age associated. Faint
halo is expected for craters to be older than half mean global age of Venus’ surface (Izenberg
et al. 1994; Basilevsky and Head 2002). Such estimate has to be taken with caution when applying to
small craters.

Degradation
FH is the third step in the degradation sequence: dark parabola, clear dark halo, ▶ faint dark halo, no
dark halo (Basilevsky and Head 2002). Degradation processes that can be effective to FH mantles
and work together include:

(1) The removal of deposited material by atmospheric winds (Bondarenko and Head 2009)
(2) Chemical weathering (e.g., Wood 1997)
(3) Adhesion (particle-to-particle and particle-to-underlying surface) of mantle material (Marshall
et al. 1991)

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Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_451-1
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Prominent Examples
FH associated with Venusian craters Barrymore, Rhys, Deken (Fig. 1).

Distribution
Faint dark halo is associated with 21.5 % of craters having a diameter 30 km (Basilevsky and
Head 2002) and 29.7 % of craters with a diameter 5 km (Basilevsky et al. 2003).

Significance
FH deposits can assist dating surrounding geologic units and landforms (Basilevsky and
Head 2002).

History of Investigation
(Izenberg et al. 1994) reported and discussed Venus’ craters with partial dark deposits. More detailed
and extended classification for FP was shown in Basilevsky and Head (2002, 2006). Microwave
properties of FH deposits were studied in Bondarenko and Head (2009).

Database
List of FH craters with a diameter >30 km can be found in Basilevsky and Head (2006).

See Also
▶ Crater-Associated Radar-Dark Diffuse Features
▶ Emissivity Parabola
▶ Radar Feature
▶ Radar Dark Parabola

References
Basilevsky AT, Head JW (2002) Venus: analysis of the degree of impact crater deposit degradation
and assessment of its use for dating geological units and features. J Geophys Res 107(E8):5061.
doi:10.1029/2001JE001584
Basilevsky AT, Head JW (2006) Impact craters on regional plains on Venus: age relations with
wrinkle ridges and implications for the geological evolution of Venus. J Geophys Res 111:
E03006. doi:10.1029/2005JE002473

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Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_451-1
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Basilevsky AT, Head JW, Setyaeva IV (2003) Venus: estimation of age of impact craters on the basis
of degree of preservation of associated radar-dark deposits. Geophys Res Lett 30(18):1950.
doi:10.1029/2003GL017504
Bondarenko NV, Head JW (2004) Radar-dark impact crater – related parabolas on Venus: charac-
terization of deposits with Magellan emissivity data. J Geophys Res 109:E09004. doi:10.1029/
2004JE002256
Bondarenko NV, Head JW (2009) Crater-associated dark diffuse features on Venus: properties of
surficial deposits and their evolution. J Geophys Res 114:E03004. doi:10.1029/2008JE003163
Izenberg NR, Arvidson RE, Phillips RJ (1994) Impact crater degradation on Venusian plains.
Geophys Res Lett 21:289–292. doi:10.1029/94GL00080
Marshall JR, Fogleman G, Greeley R, Hixon R, Tucker D (1991) Adhesion and abrasion of surface
materials in the Venusian aeolian environment. J Geophys Res 96:1931–1947. doi:10.1029/
90JB00790
Wood JA (1997) Rock weathering on the surface of Venus. In: Bougher SW, Hunten DM, Phillips RJ
(eds) Venus II. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp 637–664

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