Low-velocity impact craters in ice and ice-saturated sand with implications for Martian crater count ages.

We produced a series of decimeter-sized impact craters in blocks of ice near 0^oC and -70^oC and in ice-saturated sand near -70^oC as a preliminary investigation of cratering in materials analogous to those found on Mars and the outer solar satellites. Crater diameters in the ice-saturated sand were 2 times larger than craters in the same energy and velocity range in competent blocks of granite, basalt and cement. Craters in ice were c.3 times larger. Martian impact crater energy versus diameter scaling may thus be a function of latitude. -from Authors