Structure of the Terrain and Gravitational Field of the Planets: Kaula’s Rule as a Consequence of the Probability Laws by A.N. Kolmogorov and His School

Abstract

Kaula’s empirical rule has been known for more than 50 years: the coefficients of expansion over spherical harmonics for the fluctuations of the gravitational field and terrain of the planets decrease as the number of the harmonic squared. This was found for Venus, the Moon, Mars, the asteroid Vesta, and very small celestial bodies. The inverse-square line spectra were also found for various types of the Earth’s surface on a scale of up to a hundred kilometers. From this it follows that the spectra of the terrain slope angles are constant, i.e., “white noise.” Thus, they are δ-correlated horizontally. These are the assumptions under which the random walk laws were derived by A.N. Kolmogorov in 1934. Using them, the equation of the horizontal probability diffusion of the terrain with the linear coefficient of diffusion D is derived. Based on the empirical data, D = 1.3 ± 0.3 m for the Earth, while for Venus it is almost an order of magnitude less. The slopes resist the wind; the rock crumbles, and the water flows down the slopes as well. This consideration turns Kuala’s rule into the random walk laws (over terrain) developed by Kolmogorov in 1934.