Impacts onto H2O ice: Scaling laws for melting, vaporization, excavation, and final crater size

Shock-induced melting and vaporization of H2O ice during planetary impact events are widespread phenomena. Here, we investigate the mass of shock-produced liquid water remaining within impact craters for the wide range of impact conditions and target properties encountered in the Solar System. Using the CTH shock physics code and the new 5-phase model equation of state for H2O, we calculate the shock pressure field generated by an impact and fit scaling laws for melting and vaporization as a function of projectile mass, impact velocity, impact angle, initial temperature, and porosity. Melt production nearly scales with impact energy, and natural variations in impact parameters result in only a factor of two change in the predicted mass of melt. A fit to the π-scaling law for the transient cavity and transient-to-final crater diameter scaling are determined from recent simulations of the entire cratering process in ice. Combining melt production with π-scaling and the modified Maxwell Z-model for excavation, less than half of the melt is ejected during formation of the transient crater. For impact energies less than about 2 × 1020 J and impact velocities less than about 5 km s−1, the remaining melt lines the final crater floor. However, for larger impact energies and higher impact velocities, the phenomenon of discontinuous excavation in H2O ice concentrates the impact melt into a small plug in the center of the crater floor.

► Melting and vaporization calculations using a new multiphase model equation of state.
► We explain the effects of porosity, temperature, impactor composition, and angle.
► We determine new scaling laws for crater excavation and collapse in ice.
► Combined scaling laws estimate transient melt in craters on icy bodies.