The discovery of Martian dune fields largely preserved in the rock plate for up to a billion years provides new insights into the past climatic conditions on Mars.
With International News News Post by Jahnavi Gupta | Washington [US]
UPDATE ON OCT 06, 2020 03:10 PM IST
The discovery of Martian dune fields largely preserved in the rock plate for up to a billion years provides new insights into the past climatic conditions on Mars.
The mapping of extensive sedimentary rock deposits in the Valles Marineris region of Mars reveals clear evidence for the conservation lithification and burial of dune fields, a paper by Planetary Science Institute Research Scientist Matthew Chojnacki says.
While modern sand dunes and other wind features are common on the surface of Mars and other terrestrial planets, erosion usually consumes most of the deposits. The docklands examined in the paper are around 1 billion years old, Chojnacki said. He is the lead author of “Martian Aeolian sand deposits listed in Stratigraphy of Valles Marineris and Influence for Past Climates” which appears in the Journal of Geophysical Research Planets.
“We have identified and mapped large areas of dunes in Valles Marineris canyons that show clear evidence of lithification and burial. This level of conservation is rare for terrestrial sand dunes due to continuous erosion and tectonic erosion, ”said Chojnacki. “Given the amount of dock investment in other geological units and current levels of erosion, we estimate that these are almost a billion years old. Because of the size and shape of the dock space, which is not so different from today, we suggest that the climate and atmospheric pressure were similar to that of modern-day Mars. . ”
Surface erosion and landscape evolution are very different on Earth and Mars. “Water and tectonics that constantly reshape the Earth’s surface are not a feature of Mars, so there is an opportunity to learn from the geological record of the red planet,” said Chojnacki. “The ancient dune ranges found at Valles Marineris, with their wide variety of landscapes, conservation status, and context, reflect the richness of regional geology. These results tell us that wind-driven sand transport, deposition and lithification have occurred throughout much of Mars ’recent history and show how the evolution of a landscape there to quite different compared to the view of the Earth. ”
(This story was published from a wire group machine without text modification.)
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