Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Oct 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.1409b&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #14.09; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.436
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) have revealed new details on the morphologic and topographic characteristics of slope streaks on Mars. Over 1500 HiRISE images were analyzed with 78 unique image sites having slope streaks. Images with low illumination angles reveal that dark slope streaks have topographic relief where the streak surfaces are lower than their surroundings, representing an excavation of material. Slope streaks often initiate below localized features such as rock outcrops, individual boulders, and impact craters. They are also abundant in great numbers within the blast zones of small young impact craters. These observations suggest that slope streaks are triggered by localized disturbances such as rockfalls, impact blasts, and seismic shaking. These new observations of topographic relief and improved correlation with triggering mechanisms seem to best fit models that involve dry dust avalanches.
Additionally, Gerstell et al. [1] identified a population of meters-thick avalanche scars as being a separate class of mass-wasting features. Our analysis of dark slope streaks and meters-thick avalanche scars suggests that the two features are related and part of a continuum of active mass-wasting features formed by dust avalanches. HiRISE observations indicate that dark slope streaks without observable depth in MOC images do have topography and have less than a meter of excavation depth. While many slope streaks do not appear to have topography in HiRISE images, this does not indicate that topography is absent, but that the depth of excavated dust is not sufficiently thick to be resolved by HiRISE at the observed illumination angles. The presence and continuing formation of slope streaks on Mars further highlights the modification of the current-day surface by mass-wasting and eolian processes.
[1] Gerstell, M.F., O. Aharonson, and N. Schorghofer (2004), A distinct class of avalanche scars on Mars, Icarus, 168, 122-130.
Beyer Ross A.
Chuang Frank C.
HiRISE Team
McEwen Alfred S.
Thomson Bradley J.
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