Interfacial liquid water on Mars and its potential role in formation of hill and dune gullies

✍ Scribed by Konrad J. Kossacki; Wojciech J. Markiewicz

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 947 KB
• Volume: 210
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0019-1035
• DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2010.06.029

✦ Synopsis

Gullies are among the most intriguing structures identified on the surface of Mars. Most common are gullies located on the slopes of craters which are probably formed by liquid water transported by shallow aquifers (Heldmann, J.L., Carlsson, E., Johansson, H., Mellon, M.T., Toon, O.B. [2007]. Icarus 188,. Two particular types of gullies are found on slopes of isolated hills and dunes. The hill-slope gullies are located mostly at 50°S, which is at the high end of latitudes of bulk of the gullies found so far. The dune gullies are found in several locations up to 65°S (Reiss, D., Jaumann, R., Kereszturi, A., Sik, A., Neukum, G. [2007]. Lunar Planet. Sci. XXXVIII. Abstract 1993), but the best known are those in Russel crater at 54°S. The hill and dune gullies are longer than others making the aquifers explanation for their formation unlikely (Balme, M.