Spatiotemporal evolution, mineralogical composition, and transport mechanisms of long-runout landslides in Valles Marineris, Mars
Abstract
Long-runout landslides with transport distances of >50 km are ubiquitous in Valles Marineris (VM), yet the transport mechanisms remain poorly understood. Four decades of studies reveal significant variation in landslide morphology and emplacement age, but how these variations are related to landslide transport mechanisms is not clear. In this study, we address this question by conducting systematic geological mapping and compositional analysis of VM long-runout landslides using high-resolution Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter imagery and spectral data. Our work shows that: (1) a two-zone morphological division (i.e., an inner zone characterized by rotated blocks and an outer zone expressed by a thin sheet with a nearly flat surface) characterizes all major VM landslides; (2) landslide mobility is broadly dependent on landslide mass; and (3) the maximum width of the outer zone and its transport distance are inversely related to the basal friction that was estimated from the surface slope angle of the outer zone. Our comprehensive Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) compositional analysis indicates that hydrated silicates are common in landslide outer zones and nearby trough-floor deposits. Furthermore, outer zones containing hydrated minerals are sometimes associated with longer runout and increased lateral spreading compared to those without detectable hydrated minerals. Finally, with one exception we find that hydrated minerals are absent in the inner zones of the investigated VM landslides. These results as whole suggest that hydrated minerals may have contributed to the magnitude of lateral spreading and long-distance forward transport of major VM landslides.
Additional Information
© 2020 California Institute of Technology. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Received 26 April 2020, Accepted 29 April 2020, Available online 29 May 2020. This project was supported by an National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-1144087), a Caltech Geological & Planetary Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a Caltech GPS Chair's Postdoctoral Fellowship & California Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NSF AGEP) Postdoctoral Fellowship to JAW. BLE acknowledges Extended Mission support from the MRO-CRISM project. Thanks to the MRO-CRISM team for acquisition of several requested images in Valles Marineris and to all spacecraft teams who collected the data used herein. Measurements are included as tables in the manuscript; the graphical data products generated and analyzed during this study are available from the authors upon request.Attached Files
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 103573
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20200529-093558182
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
- DGE-1144087
- Caltech Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
- California Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate
- Created
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2020-05-29Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences