Martian Gullies and their Earth Analogues
CONTAINS OPEN ACCESS

Gullies on Mars resemble terrestrial gullies involved in the transport of abundant material down steep slopes by liquid water. However, liquid water should not be stable at the Martian surface. The articles in this volume present the two main opposing theories for Martian gully formation: climate-driven melting of surficial water-ice deposits and seasonal dry-ice sublimation. The evidence presented ranges from remote-sensing observations, to experimental simulations, to comparison with Earth analogues. The opposing hypotheses imply either that Mars has been unusually wet in the last few million years or that it has remained a cold dry desert – both with profound implications for understanding the water budget of Mars and its habitability. The debate questions the limits of remote-sensing data and how we interpret active processes on extra-terrestrial planetary surfaces, even beyond those on Mars, as summarized by the review paper at the beginning of the book.
Debris flows and water tracks in northern Victoria Land, continental East Antarctica: a new terrestrial analogue site for gullies and recurrent slope lineae on Mars
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Published:January 01, 2019
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CiteCitation
E. Hauber, C. Sassenroth, J.-P. de Vera, N. Schmitz, R. Jaumann, D. Reiss, H. Hiesinger, A. Johnsson, 2019. "Debris flows and water tracks in northern Victoria Land, continental East Antarctica: a new terrestrial analogue site for gullies and recurrent slope lineae on Mars", Martian Gullies and their Earth Analogues, S. J. Conway, J. L. Carrivick, P. A. Carling, T. de Haas, T.N. Harrison
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Abstract
Although the present environmental conditions on Mars prohibit the generation of significant volumes of liquid water, observations of several very young landforms, such as gullies and recurrent slope lineae, have been interpreted as signals for aqueous processes. To explore the range of conditions under which such features can be formed on Earth, a field site in northern Victoria Land, East Antarctica, was geomorphologically investigated. Despite the small size of the ice-free area, the site displays gullies, water tracks and other traces of liquid water. The gullies show clear evidence of sediment transport by debris flows, and are typical of...
- Antarctica
- debris flows
- deglaciation
- drainage patterns
- Earth
- East Antarctica
- erosion features
- fluid flow
- geomorphology
- gullies
- ice
- interplanetary comparison
- landforms
- Mars
- mass movements
- McMurdo dry valleys
- melting
- meltwater
- natural analogs
- planets
- seasonal variations
- slopes
- surface features
- terrestrial comparison
- terrestrial planets
- Victoria Land
- Morozumi Range
- Rennick Glacier
- recurring slope lineae