Large-Scale and Deep-Seated Gravitational Slope Deformations on Mars: A Review

Abstract

The availability of high-quality surface data acquired by recent Mars missions and the development of increasingly accurate methods for analysis have made it possible to identify, describe, and analyze many geological and geomorphological processes previously unknown or unstudied on Mars. Among these, the slow and large-scale slope deformational phenomena, generally known as Deep-Seated Gravitational Slope Deformations (DSGSDs), are of particular interest. Since the early 2000s, several studies were conducted in order to identify and analyze Martian large-scale gravitational processes. Similar to what happens on Earth, these phenomena apparently occur in diverse morpho-structural conditions on Mars. Nevertheless, the difficulty of directly studying geological, structural, and geomorphological characteristics of the planet makes the analysis of these phenomena particularly complex, leaving numerous questions to be answered. This paper reports a synthesis of all the known studies conducted on large-scale deformational processes on Mars to date, in order to provide a complete and exhaustive picture of the phenomena. After the synthesis of the literature studies, the specific characteristics of the phenomena are analyzed, and the remaining main open issued are described.

Role of Inherited Tectonic Structures on Gravity-Induced Slope Deformations: Inference from Numerical Modeling on the Luco dei Marsi DSGSD (Central Apennines)

“…The onset and evolution of deep-seated gravitational slope deformations (DSGSDs) are controlled by two main factors [1][2][3][4]: (i) inherited and pre-existing geostructural elements (e.g., anisotropies, morpho-structural conditions, tectonic elements, weak planes or zones, karst); (ii) variations in stress-strain conditions (e.g., debuttressing, erosional processes, change in water table, tectonic stresses). The first group influences all the geological evolution of the slope on long-term time span, while the second group induces significant variation in the stress regime over short-and mid-term time spans [5][6][7][8][9]. In particular, the structural setting of mountain slopes influences the shape and dimension of rock slope deformations as their kinematic is often controlled by pre-existing discontinuities or weak zones, which act as preferential sliding surfaces, basal shear zone, or lateral releases.…”