Regional differences in gully occurrence on Mars: A comparison between the Hale and Bond craters

The observation of gullies on Mars raised questions about the presence of liquid water in the recent past. In some regions like Hale and Bond crater, gullies occur in one crater (Hale) but do not in another crater nearby (Bond). These regional differences have been interpreted as an argument for a formation of the gullies related to groundwater. The formation of gullies on Earth depends on rainfall and/or melting of snow as well as on several parameters such as the presence of steep slopes and sufficient amounts of fines and debris. We investigated the Hale/Bond region for differences in crater wall morphology and texture, slopes, and thermal properties to determine whether the gully formation is dependent on factors such as steep slope angles and availability of fine-grained material. Morphologically there exist two kinds of gullies in the Hale crater: Gullies on the south- and east-facing crater slopes have a pristine appearance with deep channels eroded into the talus material and well-preserved aprons. Gully-like features on the north- and west-facing slopes are degraded and superposed by craters, indicating that they are old in comparison to the pristine ones. However, their formation process is unclear and might be due to debris flows, surface runoff or dry mass wasting processes or a combination of these processes. The crater walls of Bond do not show gullies. Their morphology is most likely consistent with a degraded mantle deposit. Slope measurements reveal that the gullies in Hale crater occur on slopes between ∼20° and ∼30° in contrast to the slopes without gullies in Bond that are between ∼10° and ∼20° steep. Mean thermal inertia values on slopes with younger gullies are ∼175 J m−2 K−1 s−1/2 corresponding to higher amounts of fine-grained material. At slopes with older gully-like features mean thermal inertia values are ∼315 J m−2 K−1 s−1/2 corresponding to higher amounts of bedrock or possibly indurated grain sizes. Mean thermal inertia values of the Bond crater walls are ∼230 J m−2 K−1 s−1/2 indicating more consolidated terrain possibly due to the cementation of the dissected mantle material. From our investigation we conclude that the occurrence of gullies in the Hale/Bond region most likely depends on the distribution of unconsolidated material and steep slopes. The regional and local gully distribution on Mars likely varies due to differences in topography and surface material properties. Their proposed clustered distribution on Mars is not an argument for a groundwater formation mechanism of the gullies.