Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007agufm.p31c0550z&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #P31C-0550
Physics
5400 Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets, 5422 Ices, 5455 Origin And Evolution, 5462 Polar Regions, 5475 Tectonics (8149)
Scientific paper
The characteristics and origin of spiral troughs in the Martian polar ice caps have been studied over three decades and it has been claimed that there is no terrestrial analogue of its kind. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the origin of the spiral troughs. However, it remains unclear how the spiral troughs form and what controls their spacing, orientation, curvature and spiral-out senses. To understand the formation and origin of spiral troughs on Mars, we first introduce and investigate its terrestrial analogue of vortex fracture systems developed and found in Earth's crust, though not in Earth's polar ice caps. One such pattern is found in Inner Mongolia of China. It consists of five arcuate fractures arranged in a spiral pattern. A second such pattern showing spiral or vortex principal stress trajectories is located in the Western Alpine arc with the center of the spiral stress field located around Torino, Italy. We propose a model of differential rotation between the permanently frozen inner part, and the movable outer part, of the Martian polar ice cap to explain the origin of spiral troughs. Observation of the Martian polar ice caps suggests this model. This model is further supported by physical modeling using a brittle-coating, by an analytic solution employing elasticity theory, and by finite element numerical modeling. Based on our preliminary study, the proposed new model explains the formation of spiral troughs in both the northern and southern polar ice caps with spiral arrangements displaying different spiral-out senses. The new model infers an increase in the rotational velocity of Mars during the past hundred thousands of years.
Birnbaum S.
Liu Lin
Xie Hehu
Yang Wei
Zeng Zhi
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