Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p43d1459a&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P43D-1459
Physics
[5415] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Erosion And Weathering, [5419] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Hydrology And Fluvial Processes, [5470] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Surface Materials And Properties, [6225] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mars
Scientific paper
We have conducted a study of the geomorphology, stratigraphy, and composition of Gale crater and its central mound of layered deposits, a region that is being considered as a landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. We surveyed the crater for fluvial features and evaluated hypotheses for the origin of the central mound, including aeolian, lacustrine, spring mound, and volcanic processes. The rim of Gale crater is extensively dissected by fluvial channels, and the observed channels on the crater rim appear to flow into the crater with no obvious outlet. Many of the channels are dendritic, some showing third or fourth-order tributaries. Inverted fluvial features occur on the floor and mound, including several meandering channels and channel networks within the proposed MSL landing ellipse. Fractures on the mound are common and are often erosion-resistant, possibly suggesting alteration and/or cementation by fluid. The key geomorphic units of the landing site and mound include: a fan-shaped deposit in the landing site (divided into low and high thermal inertia portions), hummocky plains, a widespread mound-skirting unit, a basal unit that underlies the mound and floor units, a light toned ridge, a phyllosilicate-bearing trough that parallels the ridge, dark-toned layered yardangs, light-toned yardangs, an upper mound unit, a thin mantle unit, and several lobate features on the northern flanks of the mound. Erosional unconformities suggest that the dark-toned layered yardang unit was significantly eroded prior to the deposition of the light-toned yardang-forming unit and the upper mound unit. Fan-shaped deposits of material from the dark-toned layered yardang unit extend onto the mound-skirting unit in some locations, suggesting that the skirting unit was emplaced prior to or during a period of significant erosion of the mound. A fan-shaped unit on the mound near the landing site appears to be an isolated patch of the mound-skirting unit, rather than an alluvial fan. The phyllosilicate-bearing unit has a morphology similar to aeolian bedforms, but appears to be indurated. This unit is visible only in the trough between the light-toned ridge and the mound and may be comprised of altered, aeolian-transported material, trapped by the trough and cemented. The lobate features on the northern flanks of the mound show some evidence of layering in MOC images, and may be due to landslides or glacial/periglacial processes. A streamlined texture on one of the lobate units may be due to fluvial activity or compositional banding in the unit. Some layers in the mound are traceable for >10 km, suggesting that a spring mound origin for the mound, which would produce facies changes over short distances, is unlikely. We were unable to rule out a lacustrine, aeolian or volcanic origin for the lower mound layers. We found apparent large-scale (100s of meters) cross-bedding in the layers of the upper mound unit, suggesting an aeolian origin. We have identified multiple traverses for Mars Science Laboratory that would provide access to the diverse features on the crater floor and the central mound and make full use of the rover's scientific payload to address the question of martian habitability.
Anderson Benjamin R.
Bell Jon F.
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