Physics – Geophysics
Scientific paper
Dec 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.p32b..02m&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #P32B-02
Physics
Geophysics
3022 Marine Sediments: Processes And Transport, 3045 Seafloor Morphology, Geology, And Geophysics, 5419 Hydrology And Fluvial Processes, 6225 Mars
Scientific paper
Evidence for ancient lakes on Mars is based on multiple criteria, one of which is the observation of sedimentary deposits that could have formed only in fully submerged settings. Using CTX and HiRISE images, we identify a sublacustrine fan complex on the floor of Southern Melas Basin based on its morphologic similarity to the Mississippi submarine fan complex. Recognition of the fans supports earlier suggestions for the presence of a former lake in Southern Melas Basin based on topographic evidence for a closed basin and the presence of stratigraphic clinoforms interpreted as a subaqueous deposit. The former presence of water in the area is also supported by CRISM reflectance spectra that indicate the presence of opaline silica and other hydrated phases. Southern Melas Basin could represent a complete erosional-to-depositional system, from the fluvially-incised source region in the surrounding highlands to the terminal sediment sink in the topographically lowest part of the basin that hosts the fan deposits. The presence of sublacustrine fans in Melas Chasma indicates that a significant body of water was present and stable at the surface of Mars for at least 100 to 10000 years.
Grotzinger John P.
McEwen Alfred S.
Metz Joannah M.
Milliken Ralph
Mohrig David
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