کد مقاله کد نشریه سال انتشار مقاله انگلیسی نسخه تمام متن
1773875 1021150 2011 45 صفحه PDF دانلود رایگان
عنوان انگلیسی مقاله ISI
Secondary chaotic terrain formation in the higher outflow channels of southern circum-Chryse, Mars
موضوعات مرتبط
مهندسی و علوم پایه علوم زمین و سیارات علوم فضا و نجوم
پیش نمایش صفحه اول مقاله
Secondary chaotic terrain formation in the higher outflow channels of southern circum-Chryse, Mars
چکیده انگلیسی
In addition, our numerical simulations suggest that low thermal conductivity, dry fine-grained porous geologic materials just a few tens of meters in thickness (e.g., dunes, sand sheets, some types of regolith materials), could have produced high thermal anomalies resulting in subsurface melting. The existence of a global layer of dry geologic materials overlying the cryolithosphere would suggest that widespread lenses of fluids existed (and may still exist) at shallow depths wherever these materials are fine-grained and porous. The surface ages of the investigated outflow channels and chaotic terrains span a full 500 to 700 Myr. Chaotic terrains similar in dimensions and morphology to secondary chaotic terrains are not observed conspicuously throughout the surface of Mars, suggesting that intra-cryolithospheric fluid lenses may form relatively stable systems. The existence of widespread groundwater lenses at shallow depths of burial has tremendous implications for exobiological studies and future human exploration. We find that the clear geomorphologic anomaly that the chaotic terrains and outflow channels of southern Chryse form within the Martian landscape could have been a consequence of large-scale resurfacing resulting from anomalously extensive subsurface melt in this region of the planet produced by high concentrations of salts within the regional upper crust. Crater count statistics reveal that secondary chaotic terrains and the outflow channels within which they occur have overlapping ages, suggesting that the instabilities leading to their formation rapidly dissipated, perhaps as the thickness of the cryolithosphere was reset following the disruption of the upper crustal thermal structure produced during outflow channel excavation.
ناشر
Database: Elsevier - ScienceDirect (ساینس دایرکت)
Journal: Icarus - Volume 213, Issue 1, May 2011, Pages 150-194
نویسندگان
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