Investigating Lunar Secondary Cratering in the Tycho and Copernicus Regions

Primary craters are created by objects impacting on the surface a terrestrial body. The ejecta caused by primary impacts make smaller, secondary craters. The number of primary craters on a surface indicate how long that surface has existed, however secondaries do not. Including secondary craters in primary counts creates large miscalculations in age dating (Martin-Wells et al., 2010). Thus, secondary craters must be distinguished from other surface features and excluded from surface age data (Martin-Wells, 2012). For this project, Jason Cayetano and I classified and recorded secondary crater density for two large primary craters called Tycho and Copernicus using a geospatial information system (GIS) called JMARS. By doing this, we hope to provide preliminary evidence of age contamination. We will compare our work to established research done by our mentor, Dr. Martin-Wells, whose work demonstrates that overestimation in the lunar surface age timeline is caused by secondary contamination.