Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2005
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005agufm.p23a0180s&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2005, abstract #P23A-0180
Other
5410 Composition (1060, 3672), 5415 Erosion And Weathering, 5419 Hydrology And Fluvial Processes, 6225 Mars
Scientific paper
The southern Utopia boundary plain may have formed due to pre-Hesperian detrital aggradations in the annular rings of the Early Noachian-age Utopia multi-ring impact structure. These ring-basin sequences likely controlled the location and intensity of Hesperian-age resurfacing in the boundary plain. Previous researchers delineated stratigraphic horizons in other regions based on model calculations, wall-rock exposures, and terrestrial analogs. Here, I extrapolate and expand these models by proposing that the southern Utopia ring-basin sequences are uniquely composed of three hydraulically-distinct stratigraphic zones, as follows: (1) a fractured zone that contains >7-km-thick, deeply-buried, intensely-fractured, primordial basement rocks with moderate bulk permeability and a low percentage of compactable, interconnected pore-space; (2) an ejecta zone that contains <2-km of poorly-sorted, poorly-consolidated, impact-related material with low bulk permeability and a moderate percentage of compactable, poorly-connected pore-space; and (3) a detrital zone that constitutes a <1-km-thick zone of mechanically- and chemically-weathered erosional by-products. Detrital zone materials are moderately- to well-sorted, weakly-consolidated, and characteristically fine in the upward direction, decreasing in percentage of well-connected pore-space from >25% to <1% from bottom to top, with equivalent decreasing values of permeability. Hesperian-age soft-sediment and related landforms unique to the southern Utopia boundary plain allude to the presence of buried mechanical weaknesses and significant reservoirs of volatile-rich strata available for mobilization and diapir-like ascent. The above stratigraphic model has distinctly-layered hydraulic and mechanical properties where pore-fluids would migrate primarily in the lower extremities of the detrital zone and in the fractured zone, each separated by the low-permeability, high-porosity, mechanically-weak, ejecta zone aquitard. Volatile-rich strata in the ejecta and detrital zones may have migrated upward during the Hesperian due to gravity-driven hydraulic pressurization and/or seismically-induced compaction. The ascent and surface extrusion of low-density, sediment-fluid masses was followed by the compaction of ejecta and detrital zone materials, effectively resurfacing the boundary plain.
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