Statistics – Computation
Scientific paper
Dec 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufm.p12e..05a&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #P12E-05
Statistics
Computation
1824 Geomorphology (1625), 5415 Erosion And Weathering, 6225 Mars
Scientific paper
Morphometric criteria have been developed to detect incision by groundwater sapping and surface runoff as formation mechanisms for the valley networks and channels on Mars. Such studies usually required only planimetric images. Knowledge of the topography obtained from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter on board Mars Global Surveryor permits extension of these analyses using additional quantitative criteria. Longitudinal stream profiles, basin concavity, locations of channels relative to surface topography, and transverse cross-sections of valleys may now be used to constrain the genesis and evolution of Martian valleys. The analysis here proceeds by watershed computation of the drainage systems, and has been developed and tested extensively in terrestrial landscapes. We show that the studied drainage systems on Mars have characteristics inconsistent with prolonged, intense runoff erosion, and that by analogy with terrestrial examples, groundwater sapping may have played an important role in their evolution. The unevolved nature of the terrain with respect to fluvial erosion is in contrast to some previous interpretations which require significant runoff and by implication a more clement early climate. Longitudinally flat floor segments may provide a direct indication of lithologic layers in the bedrock and pressure gradients in the ground water hydrological systems would be controlled by any such impermeable structures. The indication of layers can be viewed as independent of the precise nature of the erosion process and the continuity and geometric relationships of these putative structures are investigated.
Aharonson Oded
Rothman Daniel H.
Schorghofer Norbert
Whipple Kelin X.
Zuber Maria T.
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