Submitted to: UKPF Early Career Planetary Scientists\u2019 Meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cMapping the northern plains of Mars: origins, evolution and response to climate change\u201d \u2013 a new ISSI (International Space Science Institute) international team project.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0Jason Ramsdale, Open University, UK; Matthew Balme, Open University, UK; Susan Conway, Open University, UK; Fran\u00e7ois Costard, Universit\u00e9 de Paris Sud, France; Colman Gallagher, University College Dublin, Ireland; Stephan van Gasselt, Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin, Germany; Ernst Hauber, DLR-Institut f\u00fcr Planetenforschung, Germany; Andreas Johnsson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden; Akos Kereszturi, Research Center for Astronomy and Earth Science, Hungary; Thomas Platz, Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin, Germany; Dennis Reiss, Westf\u00e4lische Wilhelms-Universit\u00e4t M\u00fcnster, Germany; Antoine S\u00e9journ\u00e9, Universit\u00e9 de Paris Sud, France; James Skinner, US Geological Survey, USA; Zuzanna Swirad, Scott Polar Research Institute, UK<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0An ISSI (International Space Science Institute) international team has been convened for a new geomorphological mapping study of the main lowland provinces that compose the northern plains of Mars. The northern plains of Mars are extensive, geologically young, low-lying areas that contrast in age and relief to Mars\u2019 older, heavily cratered, southern highlands. Mars\u2019 northern plains are characterised by a wealth of landforms and landscapes that have been inferred to be related to the presence of ice or ice-rich material near, beneath, or at the surface. Such landforms include \u2018scalloped\u2019 pits and depressions, polygonally-patterned grounds, and viscous flow features similar in form to terrestrial glacial or ice-sheet landforms.<\/p>\n \u00a0The northern plains comprise three linked zones: Acidalia Planitia, Utopia Planitia and Arcadia Planitia. Each region consists of a shallow basin, with the three areas are separated by low topographic divides. Our aim is to study the ice-related geomorphology of each region in order to understand the origins, evolution and response to climate change of ice on Mars. In particular, by comparing and contrasting the three separate basins we hope to determine if the processes that created the ice-related terrains are regional (perhaps basin limited) or global in scope, and whether the differing geology of each basin has an effect on the ice-related features observed there.<\/p>\n \u00a0We present preliminary results for the Arcadia Planitia study area: a 250 km wide strip centred on -170\u00b0 longitude. We have used CTX (5-6 m\/pixel) and HRSC (colour and nadir, ~12.5-50 m\/pixel) images for the majority of the mapping, supported by higher resolution HiRISE (25 cm\/pixel) and MOC (~2 m\/pixel) images. We present our preliminary findings on the spatial distribution of landforms thought to be indicative of ground-ice in the regolith and the types of materials in which these forms occur. Landforms identified by preliminary mapping thus far include; possible glacial features (lobate debris aprons, linear valley fill, lineated ground, and possible glacial grooves etched into outlying bedrock), pedestal craters with double layered ejecta up to 10x the crater diameter, thumbprint type terrain, polygonal ground, channel-like forms, platey ridge material inferred by some to be lava flows (e.g. Plescia, 2003) and others to be a frozen sea (Murray et al., 2005). We will present a South-North transition of landforms along with projected outputs for the project.<\/p>\n \u00a0References:<\/strong><\/p>\n Murray<\/strong>, J.B., Muller, J.-P., Neukum, G., Hauber, E., Markiewicz, W.J., Head, J.W., Foing, B.H., Page, D.P., Mitchell, K.L., Portyankina, G., 2005. Evi-dence from theMars ExpressHigh Resolution Stereo Camera for a frozen sea close to Mars\u2019 equator. Nature 434, 352\u2013355.<\/p>\n Plescia<\/strong>, J.B., 2003. Cerberus Fossae, Elysium, Mars: A source for lava and water. Icarus 164, 79\u201395.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Submitted to: UKPF Early Career Planetary Scientists\u2019 Meeting. \u201cMapping the northern plains of Mars: origins, evolution and response to climate change\u201d \u2013 a new ISSI (International Space Science Institute) international team project. \u00a0Jason Ramsdale, Open University, UK; Matthew Balme, Open … Continue reading