Five Questionable Assertions about the Recent Mass Balance History of the Martian North Polar Layered Deposits

Details Five Questionable Assertions about the Recent Mass Balance History of the Martian North Polar Layered Deposits Five Questionable Assertions about the Recent Mass Balance History of the Martian North Polar Layered Deposits

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufm.p31a0112p&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #P31A-0112

Physics

5422 Ices, 5462 Polar Regions, 6225 Mars

Scientific paper

Numerous papers in the recent Mars polar science literature have made a variety of assertions concerning the mass balance history of the North Polar Layered Deposits (NPLD) that we find to be of questionable veracity. We will present counter-arguments to each of the following widely-held conclusions: (1) The top of the NPLD has accumulated over the last million years; (2) "Accublation" governs the mass balance of NPLD troughs; (3) Ablation prevents NPLD trough closure by flow; (4) NPLD sublimation at moderately higher obliquities produces mid-latitude ice deposits; and (5) The NPLD is less than 5 million years old. We will argue on the basis of our sublimation modeling and reconstructions of trough stratigraphy that: (1) Large-scale deposition within the NPLD has not occurred since 5 Ma; (2) Significant accumulation has never occurred in the vicinity of open north polar troughs; (3) The ubiquity of NPLD troughs is neither inconsistent with flow nor indicative of localized ablation; (4) Sublimation from mid-latitude ice deposits would likely exceed that from the NPLD at moderately higher obliquities ranging up to 35 degrees; and (5) The NPLD, despite its extremely young small crater retention age, contains several larger craters at its periphery that are consistent with a surface age of at least a few hundred Myr.

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