Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufm.p22a0537b&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #P22A-0537
Other
1821 Floods, 6225 Mars
Scientific paper
Data from Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbital Camera (MOC) and Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter (MOLA) support previous Viking-based hypotheses that a fluvial channel exists in the northwestern Cerebus Plains. MOC images show recent well-preserved streamlined forms and longitudinal grooving, features that are diagnostic on Earth of catastrophic flood terrain. Qualitative differences are apparent among groups of streamlined forms. Some streamlined forms, found throughout the main channel, have obstacles such as impact craters at their upslope ends, and flat, smooth-looking upper surfaces behind that stretch downslope. Another group, found in a smaller channel that branches southward from the main channel, do not have upstream obstacles, nor a smooth, downward sloping upper surface. We hypothesize that features in the first group were formed by deposition of sediment in the lee of an obstacle during flood flow, and in the second group, by erosion during flood flow. MOC and MOLA both indict the Cerberus Rupes as the cause of the floods. In the MOC coverage of the western Cerberus Rupes, all the fluvial features are located downslope/south of the fractures, and no fluvial features are apparent in the images to the north. MOLA topography shows the channel originating at the southern-most Cerberus Rupes. This relationship of flood channel to fracture, similar to that of Mangala Valles, suggests the operation of a catastrophic flood-generating mechanism on Mars that is different from the glacier or debris-dam mechanisms that have produced the largest floods on Earth.
Burr Devon
McEwen Alfred S.
Sakimoto Susan E.
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