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| Titel |
Euripus Mons – Landform Evolution and Climate Constraints in Promethei Terra |
| VerfasserIn |
Stephan van Gasselt, Jungrack Kim, Hyun-Seob Baik |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2016
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
en
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 18 (2016) |
| Datensatznummer |
250129503
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2016-9627.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The Promethei Terra region of Mars exhibits a variety of geomorphic landforms indicative of
ice-assisted creep of debris and ice, similar to features and processes found at the Martian
dichotomy boundary in Deuteronilus, Protonilus and Nilosyrtis Mensae. Despite only little
doubt about the fact that ice played an integral role in the formation of these features, it is still
disputed if these features were formed by glacial processes, requiring precipitation of ice and
snow and exhibiting glacial deformation and basal sliding, or if these landforms are a
product of periglacial denudation and subject to different deformation regimes. As
information about past climate conditions on Mars is sparse, the proper assessment of
landform types today allows to put constraints on their environmental conditions in the
past. Due to limited knowledge about the internal physical and thermal structure of
these landforms, it remains impossible to unambiguously determine their origin
[1]. A variety of geomorphic and model–based indicators need to be taken into
account when putting constraints on their history and when trying to reconstruct their
evolution.
For selected features on Mars it has been shown by SHARAD radar observations that the
ice content might be relatively high [2], and that some of them might be composed of pure
ice, protected from sublimation by a thin debris cover. One of such examples, Euripus
Mons, is a 80 km remnant feature with an associated circumferential talus deposit
that shows indicators for deformation by downslope movement, i.e. debris apron
morphology. Recent modelling assuming glacial deformation helped to reconstruct
some internal structural properties [3]. Despite these attempts, Euripus Mons shows
clear geomorphic signatures of classical periglacial denudation which do not fit
into the concept of glacial-only evolution. Denudation rates as well as ages are
similar to those reported from other locations on Mars for which hyperarid climate
conditions were proposed [4] and where no positive radar measurements could be
acquired.
We here report on our observations supporting a periglacial mass wasting evolution
and discuss results from numerical modelling applied to the settings of Euripus
Mons.
References: [1] Souness & Hubbard (2012) Progr. Phys. Gegr., 36(2), 238–261; [2] Holt
et al. (2008) Science, 322, 1235–1238; [3] Parsons & Holt (2015) 44th Lun. Planet. Sci.
Conf., #1840 [4] van Gasselt et al. (2011) Martian Geomorphology, Geol. Soc. London, 356,
43–67. |
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