Fluvial Valley Networks on Mars

River meandering on Earth and Mars: A comparative study of Aeolis Dorsa meanders, Mars and possible terrestrial analogs of the Usuktuk River, AK, and the Quinn River, NV

“…A variety of studies have used scaling relationships to assess formative sedimentary and hydrologic conditions for Martian channels (e.g. Komar (1979Komar ( , 1980a, Komatsu and Baker (1997), Moore et al (2003), Burr et al (2004), Wilson et al (2004), Irwin et al (2005a,b), Kleinhans (2005), Howard et al (2007Howard et al ( , 2008, Irwin et al (2008), Burr (2011)), but only the speculative abstracts by Komar (1980a) and Ori et al (2013) have addressed channel pattern. Empirical studies of the threshold between meandering and braiding understandably do not include the potential effects of gravity.…”

Paleohydrology of Eberswalde crater, Mars

“…Their estimate was 550 m 3 /s, corresponding to runoff production of 1 cm/day, based on measurements of width and contributing area from Moore et al (2003). Using the gravity scaling guidelines from Irwin et al (2008), the equivalent channel-forming discharge and runoff production would be~450 m 3 /s and~0.8 cm/day, respectively. Jerolmack et al (2004) used a model for equilibrium shape of channelized alluvial fans (Parker et al, 1998) /s, respectively, very similar to those obtained from the Manning or empirical approaches cited above.…”

“…Valley networks hundreds of kilometers long, valley heads near topographic divides, locally dense dissection, overflowed basins, and a need for aquifer recharge to erode the measured volumes of valleys indicate an active hydrological cycle at times in the past (e.g., Grant, 2000;Craddock and Howard, 2002;Fassett and Head, 2008b;Irwin et al, 2008;Matsubara et al, 2011Matsubara et al, , 2013. Degradation of impact craters throughout the Noachian Period and into the Hesperian Period required a more effective geomorphic regime than is found currently on Mars (Craddock and Maxwell, 1993;Grant and Schultz, 1993a;Craddock et al, 1997;Forsberg-Taylor et al, 2004;Golombek et al, 2006).…”

“…Empirical relationships between channel-forming discharge and the dimensions of terrestrial alluvial channels can be applied to Mars with a correction for gravity (see review by Irwin et al (2008)). The Eberswalde inverted distributary network contains two stratigraphically late, meandering paleochannel deposits (which are now cap rocks) with measurable meander dimensions and sharply defined margins (Fig.…”

The fluvial history of Mars

“…Most of the valleys are less than 200 km long and drain into local depressions, but a few reach lengths of over 2000 km. Drainage densities in the Noachian terrain widely range from undissected to densely dissected local areas, with values in the 0.1-1 km −1 range [7,10]. The average drainage density for the Noachian terrain as a whole is 0.01 km −1 , two to three orders of magnitude less than typical terrestrial values.…”