Martian Icecaps

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Martian Icecaps
North Pole
South Pole
Images from www.nasa.gov
By Tony Zwink
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Importance

• Planetary Geomorphology
• Enough water to flood Mars 10-20m
• Water is the key to life
• Fuel?

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Northern Cap
www.nasa.gov
About 2 km thick. 1100km Diameter Estimated 4
million years old Flat bottom suggests no
lithostatic depression. Cold or thick lithosphere.
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Southern Cap

• Very pure
• 350km across
• 15 silicate dust

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Similarities to Earth?

• Crevassing (Coreolis effect / seasons)
• Sublimation vs precipitation
• Domed shape?
• Dust, Ice, or CO2?
• Controls its topography

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Case Studies

• Purity and location of water
• Grima, C. - Purity of the Northern Ice cap
• Farmer, C. - Ice purity and locations (1976)
• Piqueux, S.- Ice distributiuon of the South
  pole
• Geomorphic Studies
• Siegert, M. - Accublation zones
• Zuber, M. - Observations of the Northern Ice cap
• Rognon, P. - Geomorphic features

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Outburst Floods?

• Neils Hovious (2008)
• looked at chasms on Mars
• and hypothesized they
• might be related to
• outburst floods.

Hovious, N. (2008)
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Observations

Hovious, N. (2008)
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Conclusions

• Scoured by water
• Peak discharges of (0.31.5) 108 m3/s!!!
• Not an instantaneous event
• Flood occurred about 10 Ma

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References

• Cantor, B., (1998) Regression of Martian
  North Polar Cap 19901997 Hubble Space
• Telescope Observations Icarus, USA, Vol 136
  pgs. 175-191
•  
• Farmer, C., (1976) Mars Northern Summer Ice
  Cap-Water Vapor Observations from Viking 2
  American Association for the Advancement of
  Science, USA, Vol 194 pgs. 1339-1341
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• Grima, C., (2008) North polar deposits of Mars
  Extreme purity of the water ice Geophysical
  Research Letters, France, Vol 36
• Hovious, N., (2008) Recent volcanoice
  interaction and outburst flooding in a Mars polar
  cap re-entrant Icarus, Elsevier Science
  Publishers B.V., Amsterdam, Vol 197 pgs. 24-38
• Piqueux, S., (2008) Distribution of the ices
  exposed near the south pole of Mars using
• Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS)
  temperature measurements Journal of Geophysical
  Research, USA, Vol 113
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• Rognon, P., (2007) The northern ice cap of Mars
  an enigmatic evolution compared to the polar
  environment on Earth Bull. Soc. Geol., France,
  Vol 178 pgs. 427-436
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• Siegert, M., (2002) A Terrestrial Analogy for
  Martian Accublation Zones, Revealed by
  Airborne Ice-Penetrating Radar from the East
  Antarctic Ice Sheet Icarus, Elsevier Science
  Publishers B.V., USA, Vol 157 pgs. 264-267
•   Zuber, M., (1998) Observations of the North
  Polar Region of Mars from the Mars
• Orbiter Laser Altimeter Science, New York, Vol
  282 pgs. 2053-2060
•