Erosional history of Mars during the Noachian

Details Erosional history of Mars during the Noachian Erosional history of Mars during the Noachian

Apr 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003eaeja.....1352h&link_type=abstract

EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003, abstract #1352

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Erosional processes were at their highest intensity during the Noachian, but the geomorphic record has proven difficult to decipher because of obscuration by subsequent fluvial, mass wasting, cratering, and eolian processes. In much of the southern highlands the MOLA instrument has revealed indistinct basins, most larger than 200 km in diameter, with superimposed smaller craters of Noachian and later age. In agreement with Frey et al. (GRL 29(10), 2002) these basins are interpreted to be impact basins mantled with thick airfall deposits, possibly largely ejecta from large impact basins such as Hellas and Argyre. These basins, however, were strongly eroded by fluvial processes prior to mantling, which eroded crater rims and infilled crater floors. Because of incomplete dissection by later fluvial erosion, these mantling deposits might have been partially indurated. Fluvial erosion during the mid and late Noachian in equatorial areas was primarily driven by precipitation as direct runoff and indirectly by groundwater sapping. Evidence for precipitation includes dissection almost to divides, strong correlation between intensity of dissection and length and steepness of regional slopes, integration of drainage networks over distances up to several hundred kilometers, and maintenance of steep interior crater walls during erosion and crater infilling by fluvial and lake sediments. Extensive fans occur in crater interiors and inter-crater plains. Larger basins were occupied by ephemeral playa lakes, and a large, deep lake system at about 180E and 35S may have been the source for catastrophic floodwaters forming Ma’adim Valles. The total amount of erosion in the Martian highlands is equivalent to about 1-10 million years of terrestrial desert erosion, suggesting that erosion may have been active only during climatic optima. Non fluvial degradation during the late Noachian obscured many of the earlier fluvial landforms, but a subsequent episode of erosion near the Noachian-Hesperian boundary created a sparse set of fresh channels in the uplands, perhaps from snowmelt or groundwater sapping.

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