Formation of Valles Marineris and Associated Outlfow Channels by Catastrophic Dewatering of Evaporite Deposits

Details Formation of Valles Marineris and Associated Outlfow Channels by Catastrophic Dewatering of Evaporite Deposits Formation of Valles Marineris and Associated Outlfow Channels by Catastrophic Dewatering of Evaporite Deposits

Dec 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004agufm.p13a0986m&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2004, abstract #P13A-0986

Mathematics

Logic

5415 Erosion And Weathering, 5418 Heat Flow

Scientific paper

Geological mapping based on topographic analysis of Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) data, together with photointerpretation of Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) images, and thermodynamic and heat-flow considerations lead to a new hypothesis for the formation of Valles Marineris and the associated outflow channels through catastrophic dewatering of ancient evaporite deposits. MOLA transects across Valles Marineris reveal that the valley is located at the crest of a 2-km-high topographic bulge on the flank of the much larger Tharsis Rise. The Interior Layered Deposits (ILDs) within Valles Marineris unconformably underlie, and therefore would have been heated by, Hesperian age lava flows, as well as from below by insulation by the Hesperian flows and an increased geothermal gradient due to development of the Tharis Rise. The ILDs are now thought on the basis of spectroscopic data to contain hydrous sulfate salts. The estimated range of increased temperatures predicts the potential to dehydrate >km-thick sections of gypsum or epsomite in reactions that would trigger volumetric expansion sufficient to account for the topographic bulge and catastrophically release tremendous amounts of over-pressured water.

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