Elevations of water-worn features on Mars: implications for circulation of groundwater

Details Elevations of water-worn features on Mars: implications for circulation of groundwater Elevations of water-worn features on Mars: implications for circulation of groundwater

Apr 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003eaeja.....7498c&link_type=abstract

EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003, abstract #7498

Physics

Scientific paper

The possibility that water-worn features on Mars are largely the result of global circulation of groundwater fed by basal melting of an ice cap at the south pole can now be tested with MOLA data. The water-worn features must be at a lower elevation than the base of the polar cap. Elevations of the edge of the present southern polar cap and of the cratered terrain surrounding the cap suggest that the base of the cap is roughly 1500 m above the MOLA datum. Approximately half the mapped valley networks are at elevations higher than this. Most of the valley networks are Noachian in age, so it is unlikely that polar basal melting was a significant recharge mechanism during this era. Most post-Noachian sources of water-worn features, including all the large outflow channels around the Chryse basin are below 1500 m in elevation. Prominent exceptions are lacustrine deposits within the canyons, tributaries to the canyons, and valleys on several volcanoes. These may have resulted from melting of ice within the cryosphere. Alternatively the features are the result of precipitation or the trapping of groundwater under pressure between the impermeable basement and a growing cryosphere.

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