The role of pre-impact topography in impact melt emplacement on terrestrial planets

On terrestrial planets, flow-like deposits of impact melt are commonly found exterior to fresh impact craters. Often, these deposits are asymmetric about the crater rim, and the direction of flow may relate to either the pre-impact topography or the impact azimuth. In this work, we seek to determine the primary mechanism responsible for impact melt emplacement on two very different terrestrial worlds: the Moon and Venus. Newly derived stereo topography data allows us to investigate the role of pre-impact topography in melt emplacement on Venus for the first time. We determine that pre-impact topography plays an important role in melt emplacement around complex craters on the Moon but not on Venus. This difference may relate to the differences in gravity (and hence, crater depth and melt volume) on the two worlds. Melt trapped in the relatively deep lunar craters may require additional momentum to be pushed over the crater rim, and therefore emerges preferentially from the region of rim crest low. This added momentum might come from uplift during the crater modification stage. For the shallower craters on Venus, the downrange momentum imparted in oblique impacts may be sufficient to push the melt up and over the crater rim, explaining the correlation between melt direction and impact azimuth. Understanding the emplacement of impact melt on terrestrial planets of different sizes and geologic histories provides added insight into the impact cratering process.