TY - JOUR
T1 - Evolution of the Navua Valles region
T2 - Implications for Mars’ paleoclimatic history
AU - Hargitai, H. I.
AU - Gulick, V. C.
AU - Glines, N. H.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a senior postdoctoral research fellowship awarded to H. Hargitai by the NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) at Ames Research Center, administered initially by ORAU and later by Universities Space Research Association through a contract with NASA. V. Gulick was partially supported by MRO HiRISE Co-I funds and by funds from the NASA Astrobiology Institute under Grant No. NNX15BB01A . N. Glines was also supported by funds from the NASA Astrobiology Institute under Grant No. NNX15BB01A . This research has made use of the USGS Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers (ISIS). We thank David Crown for the useful discussion about the area. We are grateful for the reviews by Corey Fortezzo and Jim Zimbelman, whose suggestions greatly improved the content and readability of the manuscript.
Funding Information:
This research was supported by a senior postdoctoral research fellowship awarded to H. Hargitai by the NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) at Ames Research Center, administered initially by ORAU and later by Universities Space Research Association through a contract with NASA. V. Gulick was partially supported by MRO HiRISE Co-I funds and by funds from the NASA Astrobiology Institute under Grant No. NNX15BB01A. N. Glines was also supported by funds from the NASA Astrobiology Institute under Grant No. NNX15BB01A. This research has made use of the USGS Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers (ISIS). We thank David Crown for the useful discussion about the area. We are grateful for the reviews by Corey Fortezzo and Jim Zimbelman, whose suggestions greatly improved the content and readability of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2019/9/15
Y1 - 2019/9/15
N2 - The Navua Valles are comprised of a system of channels and valleys on the inner Northeastern rim of Hellas Basin, which is a 1500-km-long sloping terrain. Drainage systems and regional geology in this unique setting were not previously mapped in detail. We mapped this region using CTX (6 m/px) as the base map and assessed surface unit ages resulting from our crater counting. We found that the timing of the deposit-forming episodes in this region during the Hesperian and Early to Middle Amazonian largely correlated to active phases of the Hadriacus Mons volcanic center. We found evidence for several episodes of fluvial activity Hesperian to the Amazonian with declining intensity, and transitioning to ice-dominated processes. The channels in the Navua Valles region erode into deposits dating from the Noachian to Early Amazonian, including the Noachian highlands, Noachian to early Amazonian crater ejecta, and likely volcanic plains formed from the Hesperian to the Hesperian–Amazonian transition. Channels directly originating from Hadriacus Mons are younger, while precipitation-fed channels at larger distance from the volcanic center are older, indicating different triggers for fluvial activity. Crater counting results indicate that almost all channel floors were at least partially resurfaced during the Amazonian and that several channel deposits formed during the last 0.5 Gyr. Water pathways likely included surface channels, lakes, and subsurface flow. The Navua Valles channel system is discontinuous, and the number of terminal deposits (sink locations) is almost as high as the number of channel sources, which is unusual for valley networks elsewhere on Mars. Interior channels formed only in the major Navua channels, they are even more fragmented than their parent channels, but occur along their entire length. Channels and valley systems within the Navua Valles are potential targets for in situ astrobiological studies, as they could have provided potential habitats at least periodically, from the Late Hesperian to the Late Amazonian.
AB - The Navua Valles are comprised of a system of channels and valleys on the inner Northeastern rim of Hellas Basin, which is a 1500-km-long sloping terrain. Drainage systems and regional geology in this unique setting were not previously mapped in detail. We mapped this region using CTX (6 m/px) as the base map and assessed surface unit ages resulting from our crater counting. We found that the timing of the deposit-forming episodes in this region during the Hesperian and Early to Middle Amazonian largely correlated to active phases of the Hadriacus Mons volcanic center. We found evidence for several episodes of fluvial activity Hesperian to the Amazonian with declining intensity, and transitioning to ice-dominated processes. The channels in the Navua Valles region erode into deposits dating from the Noachian to Early Amazonian, including the Noachian highlands, Noachian to early Amazonian crater ejecta, and likely volcanic plains formed from the Hesperian to the Hesperian–Amazonian transition. Channels directly originating from Hadriacus Mons are younger, while precipitation-fed channels at larger distance from the volcanic center are older, indicating different triggers for fluvial activity. Crater counting results indicate that almost all channel floors were at least partially resurfaced during the Amazonian and that several channel deposits formed during the last 0.5 Gyr. Water pathways likely included surface channels, lakes, and subsurface flow. The Navua Valles channel system is discontinuous, and the number of terminal deposits (sink locations) is almost as high as the number of channel sources, which is unusual for valley networks elsewhere on Mars. Interior channels formed only in the major Navua channels, they are even more fragmented than their parent channels, but occur along their entire length. Channels and valley systems within the Navua Valles are potential targets for in situ astrobiological studies, as they could have provided potential habitats at least periodically, from the Late Hesperian to the Late Amazonian.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.icarus.2019.04.024
DO - 10.1016/j.icarus.2019.04.024
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85065099735
SN - 0019-1035
VL - 330
SP - 91
EP - 102
JO - Icarus
JF - Icarus
ER -