Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmep53f..05a&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #EP53F-05
Mathematics
Logic
[5419] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Hydrology And Fluvial Processes
Scientific paper
Alba Patera is the northernmost shield volcano of the Tharsis bulge, on which valley networks have been identified in Viking images. Valleys are mainly distributed on the northern side of volcano, with a parallel to dendritic pattern associated with a very high drainage density of 2.3 km-1, comparable to those observed on Hawaiian volcanoes (Gulick and Baker, Nature 341, 1989; and JGR 95, 1990). They are older than sets of normal faults cutting Alba Patera, and dated of the Amazonian Period, but the age of the volcano itself (Late Hesperian-Early Amazonian) implies an age for valleys younger than that of classical valley networks formed during early Mars. These valley networks have been revisited by the HRSC stereo camera enable to generate Digital Elevation Models (DEM) with a spatial gridding of <100 m and a height accuracy of < 20 m. The depth of the deepest valleys detected in the HRSC DEM is around 30 m, whereas most of them are much shallower. Although these valley networks are relatively young in the Mars History, their original morphology is partially smoothened by a dust mantle in high resolution images, but this mantling does not seem to have filled these valleys significantly. Images also confirm that valleys located to the north are likely the result of hydrologic erosion in volcanic ash as proposed previously by Gulick and Baker (1990). Previously unrecognized valley networks have been observed on the eastern and southeastern sides of Alba Patera, where volcanic flows are well developed and less blanketed by dust or ash deposits. They are shallower than northern ones, and some prints of seepage at the front of lava flows have been identified indicating that liquid water percolation was an active process in this lithology. In summary, 3D characteristics of valleys on Alba Patera do not suggest a sustained fluvial activity unlike what could be derived by their 2D properties such as the high drainage density. Episodic snowmelt following snow deposition, or eventually episodic rainfall, could be at the origin of these shallow valleys.
Ansan Véronique
Gerhard Neukum
Mangold Nicolas
Masson Philippe L.
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