Geological Society of America

T215 The G.K. Gilbert Award Session: Planetary Surface Processes from Mars to the Outer Solar System

Tuesday, 6 November 2018
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Room 236-237

A RETROSPECTIVE ON MARS’ ALLUVIAL FANS

Paper number: T215-3
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 1:55 PM – 2:15 PM

Authors

Alan D. Howard Presenting Author
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Jeffrey M. Moore
Space Science Division, Moffett Field, CA
Sharon Wilson Purdy
National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C, DC
Alexander M. Morgan
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Edwin S. Kite
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Abstract

In a classic planetary paper, Jeff Moore identified multiple large alluvial fans in the first high resolution post-Viking images. These crater-hosted fans, up to 40 km in length, rival the largest terrestrial examples. Issues raised in that paper are still uncertain after more than 15 years and much better image resolution and topography. Why do only some craters host fans? Why are fans sourced from localized source basins? What was the climatic and hydrologic regime that favored fan development? Why, as recent studies have demonstrated, did most alluvial fans form well after the end-of-Noachian pulse of crater degradation and valley network formation? We review these issues in the context of new studies demonstrating a complex history of alluvial fan development, including intercalation of glacial, lacustrine and mantling processes with fan activity.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 50, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2018AM-320106

© Copyright 2018 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.