The Hypanis Valles delta: The last highstand of a sea on early Mars?

Fawdon, P.; Gupta, Sanjeev; Davis, J. M.; Warner, N. H.; Adler, John H.; Balme, M. R.; Bell, James F.; Grindrod, Peter M.; Sefton‐Nash, E.

doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2018.07.040

Cited by 44 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…10A and 11A). This is comparable with similar fan structures observed in better preserved examples at the Hypanis delta on the other side of Chryse Planitia (Fawdon et al, 2018) and at the Jezero sedimentary fan in Nili fossae region (Fassett et al, 2007;Goudge et al, 2017).…”

Section: Fluvial-deltaic System and Possible Related Units (Fd Dt)supporting

confidence: 85%

“…No obvious cap rock has however been observed on the top of the buttes to explain their ubiquitous preservation. Similar rounded buttes are observed elsewhere in the circum-Chryse region: in the region of the Hypanis delta, where they similarly occur more frequently toward Chryse basin and are also in some places located on the rim of impact craters (Fawdon et al, 2018). Both the deltaic deposits in Oxia Planum and Hypanis region and the rounded buttes are made of a similar low thermal inertia material.…”

Section: Remnant Rounded Buttes (Rb)supporting

confidence: 71%

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Oxia Planum: The Landing Site for the ExoMars “Rosalind Franklin” Rover Mission: Geological Context and Prelanding Interpretation

et al. 2021

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The European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos ExoMars mission will launch the “Rosalind Franklin” rover in 2022 for a landing on Mars in goals of the mission are to search for signs of past and present life on Mars, investigate the water/geochemical environment as a function of depth in the shallow subsurface, and characterize the surface environment. To meet these scientific objectives while minimizing the risk for landing, a 5-year-long landing site selection process was conducted by ESA, during which eight candidate sites were down selected to one: Oxia Planum. Oxia Planum is a 200 km-wide low-relief terrain characterized by hydrous clay-bearing bedrock units located at the southwest margin of Arabia Terra. This region exhibits Noachian-aged terrains. We show in this study that the selected landing site has recorded at least two distinct aqueous environments, both of which occurred during the Noachian: (1) a first phase that led to the deposition and alteration of ∼100 m of layered clay-rich deposits and (2) a second phase of a fluviodeltaic system that postdates the widespread clay-rich layered unit. Rounded isolated buttes that overlie the clay-bearing unit may also be related to aqueous processes. Our study also details the formation of an unaltered mafic-rich dark resistant unit likely of Amazonian age that caps the other units and possibly originated from volcanism. Oxia Planum shows evidence for intense erosion from morphology (inverted features) and crater statistics. Due to these erosional processes, two types of Noachian sedimentary rocks are currently exposed. We also expect rocks at the surface to have been exposed to cosmic bombardment only recently, minimizing organic matter damage.

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Section: Fluvial-deltaic System and Possible Related Units (Fd Dt)supporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Remnant Rounded Buttes (Rb)supporting

confidence: 71%

Oxia Planum: The Landing Site for the ExoMars “Rosalind Franklin” Rover Mission: Geological Context and Prelanding Interpretation

et al. 2021

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“…In either case, the presence of sand is second cause for the lower thermal contrast here. In another example, at the distal end of Hypanis Valles (e.g., Adler et al, ; Fawdon et al, ), FSRs have lower thermal inertia than surrounding plains due to the breakdown of deposits (Figure 10). HiRISE images show eolian ripples confined to the inverted fluvial landform.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermophysical Properties of Martian Fluvial Sinuous Ridges: Inferences on “Inverted Channel” Induration Agent

Williams

Moersch

Fergason

2018

Earth and Space Science

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In denuded landscapes, terrestrial inverted fluvial landforms are preferentially preserved due to their greater resistance to erosion from clast armoring, lava infilling, or cementation. These induration agents have differing material properties that should influence the thermal response of the surface. Using thermal inertia derived from 2001 Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) data, we find that the thermophysical contrast for 20 large "inverted channels" on Mars is comparable or elevated in comparison to nearby well-indurated materials. The fluvial sinuous ridge (FSR) thermal signature, together with regional geology and morphology attributes, leads us to disfavor clast armoring as an induration agent for most Martian FSRs. The available evidence is consistent with cementation as the most likely induration agent for FSRs, although lava infilling is a plausible explanation especially for instances of nearby volcanic edifices. FSR cementation, probably by near-surface solute-rich groundwater, extends aqueous processes beyond the period of widespread fluvial activity. Future work on the temporal response of the surfaces of inverted channels has the potential to further test the inferred induration mechanism and potentially constrain the grain size distribution.

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“…On Mars, ridges with stacked patterns are apparent for some ridges at Aeolis Dorsa (Fig. 1; DiBiase et al, 2013), Arabia Terra , Hypanis Valles (Fawdon et al, 2018), Gale Crater, near Juventae Chasma, Eberswalde, Hypanis Valles, and in fans on crater walls like those in Harris and Saheki Craters.…”

Section: Implications For Marsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formation of sinuous ridges by inversion of river-channel belts in Utah, USA, with implications for Mars

Hayden

Lamb

Fischer

et al. 2019

Icarus

154

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Sinuous ridges are important landforms on the surface of Mars that show promise for quantifying ancient martian surface hydrology. Morphological similarity of these ridges to river channels in planform led to a hypothesis that ridges are topographically inverted river channels, or "inverted channels", formed due to an erosion-resistant channel-filling material that preserved a snapshot of the channel geometry in inverted relief due to differential erosion. An alternative depositinversion hypothesis proposes that ridges represent exhumed river-channel belts, with geometries that reflect the lateral migration and vertical aggradation of rivers over significant geologic time, rather than the original channel geometry. To investigate these hypotheses we studied sinuous ridges within the Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation near Green River, Utah, USA. Ridges in Utah extend for hundreds of meters, are up to 120 meters wide, and stand up to 39 meters above the surrounding plain. Ridges are capped by sandstone bodies 3-10 meters thick that contain dune-and bar-scale inclined stratification, which we interpret as eroded remnants of channel ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 2 4/18/2019 12:45 PM belts that record the migration and aggradation of single-thread, sand-bedded rivers, rather than channel fills that can preserve the original channel geometry. Caprocks overlie mudstones and thinner sandstone beds that are interpreted as floodplain deposits, and in cases additional channel-belt sandstones are present lower in the ridge stratigraphy. Apparent networks from branching ridges typically represent discrete sandstone bodies that cross at different stratigraphic levels rather than a coeval river network. Ridge-forming sandstone bodies also have been narrowed during exhumation by cliff retreat and bisected by fluvial erosion. Using a large compilation of channel-belt geometries on Earth and our measurements of ridges in Utah, we propose that caprock thickness is the most reliable indicator of paleo-channel geometry, and can be used to reconstruct river depth and discharge. In contrast, channel lateral migration and caprock erosion during exhumation make ridge breadth an uncertain proxy for channel width. An example in Aeolis Dorsa, Mars, illustrates that river discharge estimates based solely on caprock width may differ significantly from estimates based on caprock thickness. Overall, our study suggests that sinuous ridges are not inverted channel fills, but rather reflect exhumation of a thick stratigraphic package of stacked channel belts and overbank deposits formed from depositional rivers over significant geologic time.

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The Hypanis Valles delta: The last highstand of a sea on early Mars?

Cited by 44 publications

References 67 publications

Oxia Planum: The Landing Site for the ExoMars “Rosalind Franklin” Rover Mission: Geological Context and Prelanding Interpretation

Oxia Planum: The Landing Site for the ExoMars “Rosalind Franklin” Rover Mission: Geological Context and Prelanding Interpretation

Thermophysical Properties of Martian Fluvial Sinuous Ridges: Inferences on “Inverted Channel” Induration Agent

Formation of sinuous ridges by inversion of river-channel belts in Utah, USA, with implications for Mars

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