T132 Best Practices and Exciting Discoveries in Identifying, Mapping, and Analyzing Planetary Landforms and Terrestrial Analogues

Monday, 16 October 2023
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
323

GEOLOGICAL MODEL OF THE EBERSWALDE DELTA (MARS)

Paper number: T132-3
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 1:50 PM – 2:05 PM

Authors

Abstract

Geological mapping and representation of planetary surfaces have some intrinsic peculiarities and problems when compared to the same tools on Earth. Among the many (and body-specific) issues, the main ones are that the scales are instrument-dependent and the remote sensing approach can be rarely tied with groundtruth. In this framework, mapping sedimentary deposits on Mars is of particular importance to assess the geographical distribution of a unit and the vertical and lateral relations between the different units, which is the pre-requisite to address the issue of equifinality. The representation of the geological map in 3D (i.e., geological model) can improve the effectiveness of the map by emphasizing the geometric relations between the units.

The Eberswalde delta represents an ideal geological setting to test this approach and possibly propose an attempt of standardization for detailed (i.e., CTX to HiRISE scale) geological and geomorphological mapping of these deposits, because of its pristine morphologies, exposed stratigraphy, data quantity and quality, including compositional and topographic ones, described in several papers (e.g., Malin and Edgett, 2003; Pondrelli et al., 2008; Mangold et al., 2012; Poulet et al. 2014; Hughes et al, 2023).

The delta consists of light-toned layered deposits (LTDs) placed unconformably on top of a Noachian substratum and disconformably covered by recent cover units. The LTDs occur in correspondence of a distinctive morphological assemblage, including delta plain, delta front, and prodelta morphofacies, found in different deltaic lobes.

We present a 3D reconstruction of both the geology (focus in the LTDs) and geomorphology (focus on the morphofacies) of the delta, emphasizing the erosional surfaces that complicate its stratigraphic architecture.

References

Hughes et al., 2023 - JGR Planets, 128

Malin & Edgett, 2003 - Science, 302

Mangold et al., 2012 - Icarus, 220

Pondrelli et al., 2008 - Icarus, 197

Poulet et al., 2014 - Icarus, 231

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 55, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2023AM-392061

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