Computer Science – Sound
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmep31a0588g&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #EP31A-0588
Computer Science
Sound
[0726] Cryosphere / Ice Sheets, [5462] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Polar Regions, [6225] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mars, [6969] Radio Science / Remote Sensing
Scientific paper
The Southern polar cap of Mars (Planum Australe) is an extraterrestrial ice sheet comparable to those of the Earth. Its 1.6 x 10^6 km^3 volume is made of ice crystallized in the hexagonal system (ice-Ih). When the mass-balance is positive, the growing process is ensured by the deposition of isochrones layers. Their impurities content vary with the time of deposition, but have an average value from 0 to 15 %. The evolution of the ice sheet at geological time-scale is mainly driven by the variations of orbital parameters. Given those striking similarities, one can almost considered Mars as a laboratory hosting Earth-like ice sheets in an extreme planetary environment, since Martian polar regions have a mean surface temperature and pressure of 155 K and 0.008 bar, and gravity is 0.38 times that of the Earth. Consequently, all observed peculiarities of the Martian ice sheets could be relevant, in order to get a better understanding of an ice-sheet system behavior in a wide range of conditions, and to initiate first steps toward a solid compared-planetology of polar regions. We will provide a geomorphological description of polar scarps covering the whole region of Ultimi Lobe (600 000 km^2), Planum Australe. Despite their km-size and typical asymmetric profile, equivalent objects on Earth have never been reported to date over polar glaciers. The scarps are described by coupling visible images (HRSC, HIRISE), surface topography (MOLA), and radar sounding (SHARAD, MARSIS), from the most recent datasets of the Martian exploration. This multi-instrumental approach allowed drawing up profiles of the surface and the subsurface. Different scenarios explaining this geomorphology will be proposed, as aeolian or deposition processes. We will focus on the intriguing similarities with faults occurring on Earth where brittle rocks overlie ductile rocks in an extensional regime (e.g. sedimentary basins).
Clifford Stephen M.
Costard Francois
Grima Cyril
Herique Alain
Kofman Wlodek
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