Mars: Second Order Landscapes

C.M. Rodrigue, 2015Geography, CSULB

Mars: Second Order Landscapes

Geography 441/541S/15

Dr. Christine M. Rodrigue



• The Other Great Volcanic Rise– Elysium

– “Only” 6 km thick– “Only” 2,000 km across


Second Order Landscapes

• Hecates Tholus• Elysium Mons• Albor Tholus

– MEX HRSC



• The Volcanic Rises– Elysium

• Recent volcanic activity: Hecates



• The Volcanic Rises– Elysium

• Glacial features on Hecates? Argued to be snow derived during an ice age produced by a greater obliquity


Second Order: Valles Marineris



• By comparison– Viking VIS; USA overlay: R. Klein, Cornell



• Subsidiary chasmata– Viking VIS; Malin Space Science Systems



• The Great Canyons– Valles Marineris

– Faulting/rifting– Not your ordinary grand canyon (east end is actually

higher than the middle)– Valles cut into layered material (sediments? lava?)– Extensional rifting (perhaps like East Africa? or not)– Some sign of shear faulting (like San Andreas?)– Pitting (suggests extension)– Alcoves (suggesting subsurface flow)– Landsliding widens the rifts– Massive jökulhlaup-like outflows


Mars: Second Order Landscapes• The Great Canyons

– Valles Marineris– Looks like a canyon draining into Margaritifer and then Chryse– But look at the elevations of the central and eastern ends




– Layering in walls of Melas Chasma

– Dunes covering floor




– Layering in walls of Hebes Chasma– And in Candor Chasma below




– Layering in Coprates Chasma (HiRISE)




– Extensional rifting in Tithonium Chasma– Pitting (suggests extension)




– Extensional rifting in Coprates Chasma and Catena– Pitting (suggests extension)



• Rifting elsewhere– Cerberus Fossæ

– Seem tectonic: faulting– Lava flow from a fissure?



• The Great Canyons– Landslides

• South Candor Chasma



• The Great Canyons– Landslides

• Noctis Labyrinthus



• The Great Canyons– Melas, Candor, Ophir Chasmata

– Theatre-headed tributaries– Like Canyonlands, Utah– Sapping of groundwater



• The Great Canyons– Ius Chasma

– Theatre-headed tributaries– Sapping of groundwater

Documents

Mars: Second Order Landscapes