Evaporite karst in three interior layered deposits in Iani Chaos, Mars

• Karst morphologies are detected in three ILDs in Iani Chaos.
• The features of the karst landforms suggest a very young erosional age.
• They are markers of climatic changes occurred in the recent Amazonian period.

This paper describe the karst landforms observed in three interior layered deposits located in Iani Chaos, a large depression located in the equatorial region of Mars, characterised by spectral signatures of monohydrated and polyhydrated sulfate such as kieserite and gypsum. A morphological and morphometric survey of the ILD surface morphologies through an integrated analysis of the available Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) highlighted the presence of depressions of various shapes and sizes.These Martian landforms interpreted as doline of polygenetic origin resemble similarly karst landforms that can be observed both in different karst terrains on Earth and in other regions of Mars.The karst landforms observed suggest a climatic change and the presence of liquid water, probably due to ice melting, in the late Amazonian age.