Geology before Pluto: Pre-encounter considerations

•New Horizons will acquire observations with resolutions better than 100m/pixel.•Crater statistics and morphological evolution will be investigated.•Sedimentary processes can be modeled.•Wind-modified features might occur.•Endogenic landforms will be used to diagnose thermal and compositional histories. The cameras of New Horizons will provide robust data sets that should be imminently amenable to geological analysis of the Pluto system’s landscapes. In this paper, we begin with a brief discussion of the planned observations by the New Horizons cameras that will bear most directly on geological interpretability. Then we broadly review the major geological processes that could potentially operate on the surfaces of Pluto and its major moon Charon. We first survey exogenic processes (i.e. those for which energy for surface modification is supplied externally to the planetary surface): impact cratering, sedimentary processes (including volatile migration), and the work of wind. We conclude with an assessment of the prospects for endogenic activity in the form of tectonics and cryovolcanism.