Geological Society of America

211 Exploring the Third Zone: The Geology of Pluto, Charon, and the Kuiper Belt

Tuesday, 27 September 2016
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Mile High Ballroom 2A/3A

GEOLOGY OF PLUTO AND CHARON

Paper number: 211-3
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 1:55 PM – 2:15 PM

Authors

Alan D. Howard Presenting Author
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Orkan Umurhan
Space Science Division, Moffett Field, CA
S. Alan Stern
Boulder, CO
Kimberly Ennico
Space Science Division, Moffett Field, CA
Cathy Olkin
Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO
Harold A. Weaver
Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD
Leslie A. Young
Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO
William M. Grundy
Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ
New Horizons Science Team
Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO
Jeffrey M. Moore
Space Science Division, Moffett Field, CA
William B. McKinnon
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, Saint Louis, MO
John R. Spencer
Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO
Paul M. Schenk
Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX
Ross Beyer
Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA
Francis Nimmo
University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
Oliver Luke White
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Kelsi N. Singer
Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO

Abstract

The New Horizons mission has revealed surprisingly diverse geologic settings on Pluto and Charon. Although abundant craters indicate that the Pluto system formed early in Solar System history, the surface of Pluto is volatile rich, featuring the 1000x1500 km Sputink Planum basin dominated by thick Nitrogen-rich ices with modern N₂ glacial flow, convective cell patterning, sublimation pitting, prominent chaotic water ice mountains, and a geologically-recent surface age. Uplands on the encounter hemisphere feature methane-rich mantles, deep pitting, and valleys probably carved by paleoglaciers, as well as extensional faults. Parts of the equatorial belt are mantled with dark tholins.

Charon, like Pluto, is differentiated with a water ice crust, but lacks abundant surface volatiles. A prominent ~250 km-wide belt of extensional faulting dominates the encounter hemisphere. The eastern border of the encounter hemisphere features prominent peaks extending about 3-5 km above the floors of surrounding moats, and the moats lie 1-2 km above surrounding plains. Charon also displays a variety of basins, extensional faults and probable cryovolcanic-resurfaced plains. Charon features a prominent reddish north polar cap that may be tholins sourced from atmospheric escape from Pluto and delivery to Charon.

Charon and Pluto probably have a collisional origin, and freeing of a subsurface water ocean has caused the dominantly extensional tectonism.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 48, No. 7

doi: 10.1130/abs/2016AM-283627

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