Evidence for recent volcanism on Mars from crater counts

Hartmann, W. K.; Malin, M. C.; McEwen, A. S.; Carr, M. H.; Soderblom, L. A.; Thomas, P. C.; Danielson, E. G.; James, Philip; Veverka, J.

doi:10.1038/17545

Cited by 172 publications

(122 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Their spatial distribution across most surfaces is random [figure 1A in (22)] and characterized by a population that increases exponentially from 20 m down to less than 1 m (Fig. 3), consistent with that expected for small craters (23)(24)(25). Hollows have fairly uniform morphology, and the increased perched, fractured, split, and sometimes radial distribution of rocks around their margins (Fig.…”

supporting

confidence: 76%

Surficial Deposits at Gusev Crater Along Spirit Rover Traverses

Grant

Arvidson²,

Bell

et al. 2004

Science

117

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The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has traversed a fairly flat, rock-strewn terrain whose surface is shaped primarily by impact events, although some of the landscape has been altered by eolian processes. Impacts ejected basaltic rocks that probably were part of locally formed lava flows from at least 10 meters depth. Some rocks have been textured and/or partially buried by windblown sediments less than 2 millimeters in diameter that concentrate within shallow, partially filled, circular impact depressions referred to as hollows. The terrain traversed during the 90-sol (martian solar day) nominal mission shows no evidence for an ancient lake in Gusev crater.Gusev crater is 160 km in diameter, is of Noachian age, and lies at the terminus of the 900-km-long branching Ma'adim Vallis. The crater is partially filled by Hesperian-aged materials (1) and was selected as the landing site for the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit to search for evidence of previous liquid water flow and/or ponding that may be responsible for the crater infilling (1-8).Landing occurred on a generally flat plain (14.5692°S, 175.4729°E) characterized by approximately circular, shallow depressions Ͻ20 m in diameter [hollows (9)] (Fig. 1A) and poorly defined ridges up to hundreds of meters long and a few meters high (Plate 1). The 210-m diameter Bonneville crater (9) is ϳ300 m northeast of the lander, and surface albedo increases from ϳ0.19 to ϳ0.26 toward its rim as a result of increased dust mantling (10). Bonneville and its ejecta deposits comprised the primary exploration targets along the 506-m traverse during the nominal mission reported here.The largest rocks within 20 m of the lander are Ͻ0.5 m in diameter, smaller than the largest rocks at the three previous Mars landing sites (11,12). Rocks Ͼ1 cm cover about 5% of the surface, and the area covered by fragments Ͼ10 cm is ϳ50% of the total rock-covered area (12). The size-frequency distribution of rocks Ͼ1 cm generally follows the exponential model distribution based on the Viking Lander and Mars Pathfinder landing sites for 5% rock abundance (1, 11).Most rocks Ͼ1 cm are angular to subangular (13) and of variable sphericity (13), and almost none display obvious rounding (14). The majority of rocks are intrinsically dark gray in color, but some exhibit variable dust coverings and possibly associated weathering coatings or rinds that impart a light-toned and/or reddish color, especially apparent on the lowermost 5 to 15 cm of their surfaces (10-12, 15, 16) (Plate 9). Bulk-rock compositions are consistent with picritic (olivinerich) basalt (16).Rocks Ͼ15 cm and within 20 m of the lander are mostly around hollows or near drift deposits, whereas they are largely absent within hollows (Fig. 1A). Rocks sitting exposed or perched on the surface are up to 10 times as numerous around the immediate exterior of hollows as elsewhere (Fig. 1A). Fractured and split rocks are also concentrated around the hollows, but lighter toned (redder) rocks are often closer to eolian drifts. Faceted rocks are five to e...

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supporting

confidence: 76%

Surficial Deposits at Gusev Crater Along Spirit Rover Traverses

Grant

Arvidson²,

Bell

et al. 2004

Science

117

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“…The model is similar to that of Grott and Breuer (2008a) and we ignore crustal production. Instead, we assume 6 A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT that the bulk of the crust is primordial and although there is evidence for late crustal production even after 4 Gyr (Hartmann et al, 1999;Hartmann and Berman, 2000;Neukum et al, 2004;Grott, 2005), its volumetric contribution is probably minor on a global scale (Nimmo and Tanaka, 2005). Note that the latent heat of melting associated with crustal production can have a large influence on the total amount of melt produced during the evolution (Hauck and Phillips, 2002), but does not significantly affect the current thermal state of Mars as it is expected to change the mantle energy balance by less than one percent.…”

Section: Thermal Evolution and Elastic Thicknessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implications of large elastic thicknesses for the composition and current thermal state of Mars

Grott

Breuer

2009

Icarus

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To cite this version:M. Grott, D. Breuer. Implications of large elastic thicknesses for the composition and current thermal state of Mars. Icarus, Elsevier, 2009, 201 (2) This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT AbstractThe Martian elastic lithosphere thickness T e has recently been constrained by modeling the geodynamical response to loading at the Martian polar caps and T e was found to exceed 300 km at the north pole today. Geological evidence suggests that Mars has been volcanically active in the recent past and we have reinvestigated the Martian thermal evolution, identifying models which are consistent with T e > 300 km and the observed recent magmatic activity. We find that although models satisfying both constraints can be constructed, special assumptions regarding the concentration and distribution of radioactive elements, the style of mantle convection and/or the mantle's volatile content need to be made. If a dry mantle rheology is assumed, strong plumes caused by, e.g., a strongly pressure dependent mantle viscosity or endothermic phase transitions near the core-mantle boundary are required to allow for decompression melting in the heads of mantle plumes. For a wet mantle, large mantle water contents of the order of 1000 ppm are required to allow for partial mantle melting. Also, for a moderate crustal enrichment of heat producing, elements the planet's bulk composition needs to be 25% and 50% sub-chondritic for dry and wet mantle rheologies, respectively. Even then, models resulting in a globally averaged elastic thicknesses of T e > 300 km are difficult to reconcile with most elastic thickness estimates available for the Hesperian and Amazonian periods. It therefore seems likely that large elastic thicknesses in excess of 300 km are not representative for the bulk of the planet and that T e possibly shows a large degree of spatial heterogeneity.

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“…(Hartmann et al, 1999;Hartmann and Berman, 2000;Neukum et al, 2004;Grott, 2005;Hauber et al, 2009;Werner, 2009). However, late stage activity appears to be focused on the Tharsis and Elysium volcanic provinces.…”

Section: Minor Contributions To the Martian Crust By Basaltic Volcanimentioning

confidence: 99%

Crustal recycling, mantle dehydration, and the thermal evolution of Mars

Morschhauser

Grott

Breuer

2011

Icarus

127

167

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Please cite this article as: Morschhauser, A., Grott, M., Breuer, D., Crustal recycling, mantle dehydration, and the thermal evolution of Mars, Icarus (2010), doi: 10.1016/j.icarus.2010 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.Crustal recycling, mantle dehydration, and the thermal evolution of Mars Mars would then be driven by the extraction of a primordial crust after core formation, cooling the mantle to temperatures close to the peridotite solidus. According to this scenario, the second stage of global crust formation took place over a more extended period of time, waning at around 3500 Myr b.p., and was driven by heat produced by the decay of radioactive elements. Present-day volcanism would then be driven by mantle plumes originating at the core-mantle boundary under regions of locally thickened, thermally insulating crust. Water extraction from the mantle was found to be 1 relatively efficient and close to 40 percent of the total inventory was lost from the mantle in most models. Assuming an initial mantle water content of 100 ppm and that 10% of the extracted water is supplied to the surface, this amount is equivalent to a 15 m thick global surface layer, suggesting that volcanic outgassing of H 2 O could have significantly influenced the early Martian climate and increased the planet's habitability.

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Evidence for recent volcanism on Mars from crater counts

Cited by 172 publications

References 11 publications

Surficial Deposits at Gusev Crater Along Spirit Rover Traverses

Surficial Deposits at Gusev Crater Along Spirit Rover Traverses

Implications of large elastic thicknesses for the composition and current thermal state of Mars

Crustal recycling, mantle dehydration, and the thermal evolution of Mars

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