Effects of the meteorite and comet impacts on the degassing of volatile contained in martian heterogeneous regolith

Abstract

The goal of this master’s thesis iw to better understand Mars and its complex processes and more specifcally to understand if the heterogeneity of the martian regolith may impact the degassing of volatile due to small impactors.To do so the increase of temperature as a result of impact energy is theoretically and numerically investigated. A modelisation of the increase of impact-induced temperature is proposed with an analytcial method : the Murnaghan equation of state.Then a comparison with a hydrocode (numerical method) is considered. To study the environmental effect, the evolution of the temperature following an impact for a martian year is calculated using the Crank-Nicholson method. The effect of the heterogeneity of the martian subsurface is then studied with the use of different plausible scenarii of different locations of interest on Mars. Finally, the results for each scenarii are compared with the depth of the ice table or the clathrate stability zone to assess its destabilization and thus degassing of methane.