Laboratory Experiments to Investigate Breakout and Bifurcation of Lava Flows on Mars

Details Laboratory Experiments to Investigate Breakout and Bifurcation of Lava Flows on Mars Laboratory Experiments to Investigate Breakout and Bifurcation of Lava Flows on Mars

May 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agusm...p41a01m&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2001, abstract #P41A-01

Other

6225 Mars, 8429 Lava Rheology And Morphology, 8450 Planetary Volcanism (5480)

Scientific paper

Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) images show that many lava flows on Mars have morphologies quite similar to aa lava flows. Such flows often have many lobes and branches that overlap each other, making a compound flow unit. These features cannot be explained by any simple flow model because longer effusion duration will simply make the flow longer, although actual lavas often will bifurcate to make additonal flow units. Similarly, formation of a lava tube is difficult to predict by a model that does not contain preset conditions for their formation. Treatment of the surface crust is very important to the flow morphology, especially for effusion over a long duration. To understand the effect of a crust on flow morphology, paraffin wax is especially useful in laboratory experiments. In our experiments, a flow on a constant slope typically progresses with a constant width at first. Then, the flow front cools to form a crust, which inhibits the progress of the flow. At that time, the flow sometimes becomes sinuous or ceases its movement. With a sufficient flux after that, uplift of thickness (inflation) can occur. Uplift sometimes attains a sufficient thickening to produce a breakout at the side of the flow, bifurcating to form a new cooling unit. Bifurcated flows do not always follow the main flow (some branches moved several cm away from the initial flow). The bifurcations continue to develop into a complicated flow field, given a sufficiently long duration of effusion. Although the movement of the flow with a surface crust is difficult to predict, our simple analysis suggests that the maximum thickness attained by the inflation (by fluid continuing to enter a stopped flow) before a breakout can occur is roughly estimated by a balance between the overpressure and the crust tensile strength. The maximum extent of a bifurcated flow after a breakout can probably be constrained, which will be a significant goal for future modeling of compound flows.

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