Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Dec 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agufm.p22a0388t&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2002, abstract #P22A-0388
Mathematics
Logic
5415 Erosion And Weathering, 5470 Surface Materials And Properties, 6225 Mars
Scientific paper
The NASA Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Project is considering a landing-site ellipse designated EP78B2 in southeastern Utopia Planitia, southwest of Elysium Mons. This ellipse is centered at 11.73N, 123.72E (planetocentric coordinates), is 155 km long and 16 km wide, has its major axis oriented N86W, and covers ~1640 km2. The site ranges from -2656 to -3177 m elevation (based on the MOLA 1/128° DEM). The site appears to be relatively safe for a MER landing site because of its predicted low wind velocities in mesoscale atmospheric circulation models and its thin dust cover and low surface roughness at various scales as indicated by topographic, thermal, and imaging data sets. Although chosen mainly for its safety characteristics, the site also meets basic science requirements for the MER mission involving the geologic activity of water. Previously, the site's surface rocks had been interpreted to be lava flows based on the occurrence of wrinkle ridges, but these tectonic structures can form in virtually all rock materials. Our investigation of materials located below the highland/lowland boundary (HLB) suggests resurfacing due to water-related activity. Above the HLB, valley networks dissect Noachian highland rocks some 250 km southwest of the landing ellipse. Below the HLB, the highland rocks are severely degraded into large knobs hundreds of meters high and several kilometers across with intervening plains material at about -2000 m elevation. The plains material, which covers most of the landing ellipse, likely consists of detritus derived from mass-wasting of highland rocks. Some small, widely scattered knobs and mesas persist in and around the ellipse. In addition to wrinkle ridges, the plains just north of the ellipse below -3000 m elevation are marked locally by arcuate, gently sloping scarps tens of kilometers long and hundreds of meters high, which we interpret to be collapse features related to a younger episode of HLB mass wasting that operated largely within plains rocks. Additionally, others have suggested that bodies of water or ice may have previously filled Utopia basin. More than 300 km north of the ellipse, the unusual Hephaestus Fossae, consisting of fissures, channels, and pit chains within low plains, provides evidence of both surface and subsurface fluvial erosion along fracture systems. Hence, a MER investigation of the Elysium landing site should encounter ancient Noachian rocks modified by water-related events that may include long-lived fluvial, mass-wasting, and lacustrine processes, in contrast to the catastrophic flood deposits investigated by Mars Pathfinder in Chyrse Planitia.
Hare Trent M.
Skinner Andrew J.
Tanaka Ken L.
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