Hydrocode modeling of the spallation process during hypervelocity impacts: Implications for the ejection of Martian meteorites

TL;DR

This study models hypervelocity impact spallation using hydrocode simulations to understand how Martian meteorites and tektites could be ejected from planetary surfaces, highlighting the role of peak pressure and ejection velocity.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed hydrocode modeling approach for impact spallation, linking peak pressure to ejection velocity and mass, relevant for planetary material exchange and tektite formation.

Findings

Ejection velocities can exceed shock particle velocities due to late-stage acceleration.

Ejecta mass capable of escaping Mars is 0.1-1% of projectile mass at 30-50 GPa.

Spallation is a plausible mechanism for Martian meteorite and tektite ejection.

Abstract

Hypervelocity ejection of material by impact spallation is considered a plausible mechanism for material exchange between two planetary bodies. We have modeled the spallation process during vertical impacts over a range of impact velocities from 6 to 21 km/s using both grid- and particle-based hydrocode models. The Tillotson equations of state, which are able to treat the nonlinear dependence of density on pressure and thermal pressure in the strongly shocked matter, were used to study the hydrodynamic and thermodynamic response after impacts. The effects of material strength and gravitational acceleration were not considered. A two-dimensional time-dependent pressure field within a 1.5-fold projectile radius from the impact point was investigated in cylindrical coordinates to address the generation of spalled material. A resolution test was also performed to reject ejected materials with peak pressures that were too low due to artificial viscosity. The relationship between ejection velocity veject and peak pressure Ppeak was also derived. Our approach shows that late stage acceleration in an ejecta curtain occurs due to the compressible nature of the ejecta, resulting in an ejection velocity that can be higher than the ideal maximum of the resultant particle velocity after passage of a shock wave. We also calculate the ejecta mass that can escape from a planet like Mars (i.e., veject higher than 5 km/s) that matches the petrographic constraints from Martian meteorites, and which occurs when Ppeak from 30-50 GPa. Although the mass of such ejecta is limited to from 0.1-1 percent of the projectile mass in vertical impacts, this is sufficient for spallation to have been a plausible mechanism for the ejection of Martian meteorites. Finally, we propose that impact spallation is a plausible mechanism for the generation of tektites.