Landslides and nearby impact events on Ceres: evidence of triggering through morphological analysis and absolute model dating

Landslides are widespread geomorphic features on solid bodies across the Solar System [1]. On Ceres, a densely cratered dwarf planet, landslides are common [2-5] and affect more than 20% of craters larger than 10 km [4]. However, their triggering mechanisms remain poorly constrained given the absence of active geological processes. Previous studies have proposed two impact-related landslide triggers on Solar System bodies: i) direct strikes on pre-existing slopes [4] and, ii) impact-induced ground shaking [6,7].

Based on criteria including freshness, well-defined margins, optimal illumination and no crater saturation, we selected eight landslides  ̶ out of fifty-seven associated with nearby impact craters  ̶  for detailed morphological analysis. All of the selected landslides occurred on the outer rim of impact craters, and in most cases within the wall of an older, pre-existing crater. Each landslide was mapped using high-resolution LAMO imagery and the 100 m global shape model [8].

Crater size-frequency distributions were measured on both landslide deposits and impact crater ejecta using two approaches: i) including all craters and, ii) considering only primary craters. A Voronoï tessellation was used to filter out secondary impact areas [9], and absolute model ages were computed using the lunar-derived model [10].

The crater counting method revealed that the eight landslides are geologically young, ranging from ~13.5 Ma to ~107 Ma. Notably, these ages are consistent with those of the nearby impact crater ejecta, indicating a temporal overlap between landslides and impact events.

Overall, the analyses revealed a spatial and temporal correlation between the landslides and nearby impacts on Ceres, which provides evidence for the mechanism that triggered the mass movements [12]. The results from Ceres show that this approach is effective in identifying similar relationships between impact events and landslides on other Solar System bodies.

 

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