PALS: Angela Stickle (JHU-APL), Smashing Rocks and Reading Landscapes: The Essential Role of Experiments and Field Campaigns in Impact Science

Smashing Rocks and Reading Landscapes: The Essential Role of Experiments and Field Campaigns in Impact Science

Angela Stickle
Planetary Geologist
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab

Abstract: Impact cratering is the most dominant geologic process in the solar system, and impact craters are seen on all solid bodies.  Impact craters provide one of the best ways for us to understand the evolution of planetary surfaces, because they provide methods for dating surfaces and can act as windows into the subsurface.  Studies of impact craters are done using field work data, models, experiments and remote sensing data.  While a lot can be learned from remote sensing images and numerical simulations, it is vital to have experimental and field data to ground-truth our assumptions and models.  Here, I’ll discuss impact cratering experiments and what we can learn from touching real-life craters in the lab, how they can help us improve our models, and then provide some discussion of current and future exploration opportunities across the solar system and how remote field work provides important information about the geologic history of planets.

Host:  Ben Sharkey