Crater–fault interactions: A metric for dating fault zones on planetary surfaces

Constructing a tectonic history of a planetary surface requires determining precise fault ages, a task not always possible with current analytical methods. Here we introduce a new method to constrain the ages of faults, improving upon earlier methods that used cross-cutting relationships with crater-dated host surfaces, and apply it to faulted terrains by counting all craters and categorizing them into “faulted,” “unfaulted” and “unclear” types to date deformation directly. Additionally, we construct a simple probabilistic model to account for regions of low fault density. This new technique is applied to the tectonically complex Thaumasia plateau, Mars, to assess the timing of regional faulting and demonstrate its usefulness and ease of application.