A Formational Model for the Martian Polygonal Terrains

Details A Formational Model for the Martian Polygonal Terrains A Formational Model for the Martian Polygonal Terrains

Mar 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996lpi....27.1419w&link_type=abstract

Lunar and Planetary Science, volume 27, page 1419

Physics

Convection, Fractures, Lowlands: Northern, Mars, Terrains: Polygonal

Scientific paper

On Mars, polygonal terrains are present within the northern lowlands in both the Acidalia and Utopia Planitae. The polygons vary in appearance but generally are 5 to 25 km in diameter and are defined by boundary fractures. Neither desiccation of sediment, fracturing of cooling lava, frost-wedging, nor deep-seated, uniform horizontal tension is a solely satisfactory process for generating the polygons. Here we propose a mechanism for the origin of the polygonal terrains that is based on density-driven free convection of pore fluid in a 1.31 to 5.25 km-thick layer of wet sediment overlying a frozen subsurface and subsequent desiccation with fracturing occurring preferentially above subsurface topographic highs.

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