Interpreting ancient fluvial and deltaic environments on Mars: what can Earth analogs tell us?

Details Interpreting ancient fluvial and deltaic environments on Mars: what can Earth analogs tell us? Interpreting ancient fluvial and deltaic environments on Mars: what can Earth analogs tell us?

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufm.p42c..01g&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #P42C-01

Physics

[1861] Hydrology / Sedimentation, [5415] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Erosion And Weathering, [5419] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Hydrology And Fluvial Processes

Scientific paper

Reconstructing ancient sedimentary environments on Earth is not a trivial task. Sedimentologists typically use detailed analysis of sedimentary features in rocks together with geometrical stratigraphic relationships and couple this with models of modern systems to reconstruct palaeo-river and deltaic landform features and environments. However, the fidelity of these reconstructions is dependent on good outcrop control and an understanding of how geomorphic elements become frozen in the stratigraphic record. On Mars reconstruction of ancient fluvial and deltaic is on the one hand easier because in numerous examples the planform morphology of such systems preserved in the present-day landscape as relic palaeolandscape features. Such features are very rarely preserved on Earth's landsurface. However, care must be taken in such interpretations. Whilst we can observe point-sourced sedimentary bodies within craters typically emanating from channels that enter the crater, interpreting these as deltaic and determining the type of delta is hazardous. Prior studies have largely focused on establishing geomorphic relations from the large-scale planform bedrock morphology, however, this is dependent on the preservation state. On Earth, we reconstruct ancient deltas by careful analysis of sedimentary bedding patterns as observed in vertical sections. By lateral tracing of bedding we constrain the morphostratigraphy of depositional elements and the surfaces that bound them. The stratigraphy preserved however is not a static state of the river or delta, but instead is a complex of surfaces and sediment bodies that records lateral migration and vertical accumulation of landscape elements. The integration of HiRISE imagery with HiRISE digital terrain models enables Mars sedimentologists and stratigraphers to explore bedding patterns exposed in martian canyons. Whilst we cannot get a handle on the internal sedimentology of these deposits, the analysis of architectural elements and their geometrical disposition enables us to reconstruct the large-scale architecture of inferred martian fluvial and deltaic systems. Understanding this architecture is crucial to informed interpretation of such sedimentary deposits. Here, we analyse the morphology of fluvio-deltaic systems in Eberswalde crater, Mars, using a variety of Earth analogs to aid our analysis. We will examine large scale bedding geometries of the sort visible in spacecraft imagery, and consider how best one can make interpretations.

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