A Global Perspective on Lunar Granular Flows
Abstract Dry granular flows are ubiquitous, yet poorly understood mass wasting features on the Moon. Above all, their global distribution, relation to the physical environment, and drivers are poorly understood. Here, we build and deploy a convolutional neural network and map 28,101 flow features be...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL098812 |
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| author | V. T. Bickel S. Loew J. Aaron N. Goedhart |
| author_facet | V. T. Bickel S. Loew J. Aaron N. Goedhart |
| author_sort | V. T. Bickel |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Dry granular flows are ubiquitous, yet poorly understood mass wasting features on the Moon. Above all, their global distribution, relation to the physical environment, and drivers are poorly understood. Here, we build and deploy a convolutional neural network and map 28,101 flow features between 60°N and S by scanning through ∼150,000 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images. We observe that flows are heterogeneously distributed over the Moon, where all major hotspots are located in craters and almost all hotspots are located in the nearside maria. We further observe that younger surfaces feature higher flow feature densities, while pre‐Nectarian terranes can still host flows, remaining subject to active erosion billions of years after their formation. Our observations suggest that impacts at various scales have been—and likely still are—acting as the main, global‐scale, long‐ and short‐term driver of flow occurrence, strongly influenced by the properties of the target rock material. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e6d030a5b3644313a2ee2839cee91ace |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0094-8276 1944-8007 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Geophysical Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-e6d030a5b3644313a2ee2839cee91ace2025-01-22T14:38:15ZengWileyGeophysical Research Letters0094-82761944-80072022-06-014912n/an/a10.1029/2022GL098812A Global Perspective on Lunar Granular FlowsV. T. Bickel0S. Loew1J. Aaron2N. Goedhart3ETH Zurich Zurich SwitzerlandETH Zurich Zurich SwitzerlandETH Zurich Zurich SwitzerlandETH Zurich Zurich SwitzerlandAbstract Dry granular flows are ubiquitous, yet poorly understood mass wasting features on the Moon. Above all, their global distribution, relation to the physical environment, and drivers are poorly understood. Here, we build and deploy a convolutional neural network and map 28,101 flow features between 60°N and S by scanning through ∼150,000 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images. We observe that flows are heterogeneously distributed over the Moon, where all major hotspots are located in craters and almost all hotspots are located in the nearside maria. We further observe that younger surfaces feature higher flow feature densities, while pre‐Nectarian terranes can still host flows, remaining subject to active erosion billions of years after their formation. Our observations suggest that impacts at various scales have been—and likely still are—acting as the main, global‐scale, long‐ and short‐term driver of flow occurrence, strongly influenced by the properties of the target rock material.https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL098812moongranular flowsmachine learningerosionmass wastingweathering |
| spellingShingle | V. T. Bickel S. Loew J. Aaron N. Goedhart A Global Perspective on Lunar Granular Flows Geophysical Research Letters moon granular flows machine learning erosion mass wasting weathering |
| title | A Global Perspective on Lunar Granular Flows |
| title_full | A Global Perspective on Lunar Granular Flows |
| title_fullStr | A Global Perspective on Lunar Granular Flows |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Global Perspective on Lunar Granular Flows |
| title_short | A Global Perspective on Lunar Granular Flows |
| title_sort | global perspective on lunar granular flows |
| topic | moon granular flows machine learning erosion mass wasting weathering |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL098812 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT vtbickel aglobalperspectiveonlunargranularflows AT sloew aglobalperspectiveonlunargranularflows AT jaaron aglobalperspectiveonlunargranularflows AT ngoedhart aglobalperspectiveonlunargranularflows AT vtbickel globalperspectiveonlunargranularflows AT sloew globalperspectiveonlunargranularflows AT jaaron globalperspectiveonlunargranularflows AT ngoedhart globalperspectiveonlunargranularflows |