Title: Evidence, Age, and Thickness of a Frozen Paleolake in Utopia Planitia, Mars
Abstract: Recent mapping studies west of Elysium Mons, Mars, have pinpointed subice features that suggest the existence of a frozen paleolake in Utopia Planitia as recently as 1.8 billion years ago. The subice features are interpreted to be hyaloclastic ridges and hills, table mountains, associated jökulhlaup deposits, and fluvial channels. Photoclinometric studies of these features and of a basal scarp around the northwest flank of Elysium Mons interpreted to have been an ice-sheet boundary indicate that the maximum thickness of ice within the basin may have been about 180 m. This thickness of ice during a relatively late stage of Martian geologic history would have important implications concerning the atmospheric, the climatic, and possibly the exobiologic history of the planet.
Publication Year: 1994
Publication Date: 1994-06-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 69
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