Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Oct 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.3403h&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #34.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1015
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
Outcrop exposures imaged by the Opportunity rover at Victoria Crater, a 750 m diameter crater in Meridiani Planum, are used to study cross-bedded strata with geometries and scales similar to eolian deposits found on Earth. Preserved cross-bedded stratigraphy is rich in geologic information, providing insight into depositional environments and sediment transport directions. High-Resolution images of the cross-bedded strata observed at Victoria Crater are used to reconstruct sedimentary bedforms on Mars in order to infer formation process and describe the depositional environment. The stratigraphy at Victoria Crater includes the best examples of meter-scale cross-bedding observed on Mars to-date. The Cape St. Mary promontory is characterized by meter-scale trough-style cross bedding, suggesting sinuous-crested dunes with scour pits migrating perpendicular to the outcrop face. Cape St. Vincent, which strikes 110∘ away from Cape St. Mary, shows tabular-planar stratification indicative of climbing bedforms with meter to decameter-scale dune heights.
The findings at Cape St. Mary and Cape St. Vincent are combined with other outcrop faces to produce an eolian deposition model for stratification exposed at Victoria Crater. Promontories located between Cape St. Mary and Cape St. Vincent contain superposed stratigraphic units with northward and southward dipping beds separated by outcrop-scale erosional contacts. Any depositional model used to explain the bedding must conform to reversing N-S, S-N, and NW-SE paleobedform migration directions. In addition to stratified outcrop, a bright band is observed to overprint bedding and lie on an equipotential parallel to the pre-impact surface. Super-resolution images show that the band transects and cross-cuts existing bedding, suggesting a diagenetic origin. Meter-scale cross bedding at Victoria Crater is similar to terrestrial eolian deposits and is interpreted as a dry dune field, comparable to Jurassic-age eolian deposits in the western US.
Edgar Lauren A.
Grotzinger John P.
Hayes Alexander
Sohl-Dickstein Jascha
Squyres Steve W.
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