Tooting (crater)

MarsGeo-Crater


discoverer=Pete Mouginis-Mark
diameter=28 km
name=Tooting
eponym=London suburb
latitude = 23.1
N_or_S = N
longitude = 207.1
E_or_W =E
depth=1200 metres

Tooting is a multi-layered fluidized ejecta crater (a type of rampart crater) at 23.1°N, 207.1°E, in Amazonis Planitia, due west of the volcano Olympus Mons, on Mars. . [cite web|url=http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/jsp/FeatureNameDetail.jsp?feature=66228|title=Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature|accessdate=2007-05-18] It was identified by planetary geologist Pete Mouginis-Mark in September 2004. Scientists estimate that its age is on the order of hundreds of thousands of years, which is relatively young for a Martian crater.cite web|url=http://themis.asu.edu/features/tooting|title=Tooting Crater's Tangled Tale|accessdate=2007-05-18] A later study confirms this order of magnitude estimate. [cite web|title=Cratering age considerations for young terranes in the inner Solar System|url=http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/chron2006/pdf/6030.pdf|accessdate=2007-05-18] . A paper describing the geology and geometry of Tooting Crater has been published in 2007 by the journal "Meteoritics and Planetary Science", vol. 42, pages 1615 - 1625.

Naming

Tooting is named after the London suburb of the same name. This is in accordance with the International Astronomical Union's rules for planetary nomenclature, which specify that craters on Mars less than 60 km in diameter should be named after "villages of the world with a population of less than 100,000". [cite web|url=http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/append6.html|title=Categories for Naming Features on Planets and Satellites|accessdate=2007-05-18] The discoverer named it after his home town because he "thought [his] mum and brother would get a kick out of having their home town paired with a land form on Mars". [cite web
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4395660.stm|title=Mars crater named after Tooting
publisher=BBC News
accessdate=2007-05-18] This caused a stir in the British press, with many well-known media outlets reporting on the issue. [cite web
url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/space/article/0,14493,1606597,00.html|title=Why Tooting is on another planet
publisher=The Guardian
accessdate=2007-05-18] [cite web
url=http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005500748,00.html
title=Tooting makes it to Mars
publisher=The Sun
accessdate=2007-05-18] [cite web
url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article585079.ece
title=Life on Mars - But the force is with Tooting
publisher=The Times
accessdate=2007-05-18]

Geology

The crater's youth was inferred from many signs of a fresh impact. These include the presence of a field of secondary craters, the lack of additional cratering, preserved impact melt in the crater and that the central peak of the crater has not been buried by sediment.

Due to the flatness of the surrounding lava flows (at 3872 m below Martian datum), it is possible to infer much about the crater's formation and ejecta blanket. For example, the volume of ejecta deposited from the formation of the crater is estimated to be 450 cubic kilometres and that this process took less than half an hour. [cite journal|title=Ejecta Thickness of the Martian Impact Crater Tooting|journal=American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006|url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006AGUFM.P34B..01M|doi=10.1029/2004JE002242).]

The crater is asymmetric because the meteorite that formed it struck obliquely, travelling northeast on impact.

External links

* [http://www.higp.hawaii.edu/~pmm/planetary.html Discoverer's website]
* [http://themis.asu.edu/features/tooting3d 3d THEMIS rendering of Tooting crater]
* [http://www.google.com/mars/#lat=23.185813&lon=-151.880493&zoom=8&q=23.1%20N%20%20207%20E Google Mars display of the Tooting crater]
* [http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_001538_2035 High resolution image of central mountains]

References