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Yuty is a crater on
Yuty is a crater on Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
in Chryse Planitia
Chryse Planitia (Greek, "''Golden Plain''") is a smooth circular plain in the northern equatorial region of Mars close to the Tharsis region to the west, centered at . Chryse Planitia lies partially in the Lunae Palus quadrangle, partially in th ...
, named after the town of Yuty
Yuty is a town in the Caazapá Department of Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bord ...
in Paraguay. It measures approximately in diameter, and is surrounded by complex ejecta
Ejecta (from the Latin: "things thrown out", singular ejectum) are particles ejected from an area. In volcanology, in particular, the term refers to particles including pyroclastic materials (tephra) that came out of a volcanic explosion and magma ...
lobes, which are a distinctive characteristic of martian impact craters.
Description
Many craters at equatorial and mid-latitudes on Mars have this form of ejecta morphology, which is thought to arise when the impacting object melts ice in the subsurface. Liquid water in the ejected material forms a muddy slurry that flows along the surface, producing the characteristic lobe shapes. The presence of a pre-existing, partially buried crater on Yuty's southwestern rim is evidence that the ejecta is thin. Yuty is located in the general region of theViking 1
''Viking 1'' was the first of two spacecraft, along with ''Viking 2'', each consisting of an orbiter and a lander, sent to Mars as part of NASA's Viking program. The lander touched down on Mars on July 20, 1976, the first successful Mars land ...
landing site. It was well photographed by the Viking orbiters in the 1970s, and as a consequence its image appears in many books and articles of the era as a type example of Martian impact crater morphology.
The distinctive lobate ejecta pattern of craters like Yuty gave rise to a confusing terminology among Mars researchers. Sometimes informally called "splosh craters", Yuty-type craters have also been called petal or flower craters and fluidized ejecta craters. More commonly they are called rampart crater
Rampart craters are a specific type of impact crater which are accompanied by distinctive fluidized ejecta features found mainly on Mars. Only one example is known on Earth, the Nördlinger Ries impact structure in Germany. A rampart crater displ ...
s because the ejecta lobes terminate in curved ridges or ramparts. In today's preferred terminology, Yuty is described as a multiple-layer ejecta (MLE) rampart crater because its ejecta is deposited in a series of three or more discrete layers. The presence of multiple ejecta layers may reflect impact into multiple layers of ice or a subsurface layer saturated with liquid water. The exact process is still somewhat controversial.
Yuty is a complex crater
Complex craters are a type of large impact crater morphology.
Above a certain threshold size, which varies with planetary gravity, the collapse and modification of the transient cavity is much more extensive, and the resulting structure is cal ...
as opposed to a simple (bowl-shaped) crater. Complex craters are distinguished by having a raised central peak complex and terracing along the inner wall. On Mars, complex crater morphology begins to appear at crater diameters between 5 and 8 km (3.6 to 4.8 miles). The size of the central peak in Yuty is larger than central peaks in comparable craters on other planets. This appears typical of complex craters on Mars and, like the lobate ejecta patterns, may be due to geologic conditions in the subsurface that are unique to Mars (e.g., presence of ice).Boyce, J. M. ''The Smithsonian Book of Mars''; Konecky & Konecky: Old Saybrook, CT, 2008, p. 201.
See also
*Geology of Mars
The geology of Mars is the scientific study of the surface, crust, and interior of the planet Mars. It emphasizes the composition, structure, history, and physical processes that shape the planet. It is analogous to the field of terrestrial geo ...
* List of craters on Mars
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This is a list of craters on Mars. Impact craters on Mars larger than exist by the hundreds of thousands, but only about one thousand of them have names. Names are assigned by the International Astronomical Union after petitioning by ...
References
{{Portal bar, Solar System Impact craters on Mars Oxia Palus quadrangle