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.
Gully formation in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica: multiple sources of water, temporal sequence and relative importance in gully erosion and deposition processes
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Published:January 01, 2019
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CiteCitation
James L. Dickson, James W. Head, Joseph S. Levy, Gareth A. Morgan, David R. Marchant, 2019. "Gully formation in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica: multiple sources of water, temporal sequence and relative importance in gully erosion and deposition processes", 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
We report on a decade of fieldwork designed to determine the conditions required for erosion of Mars-like gully channels in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) of Antarctica. We have outlined the major factors in the morphological evolution of gullies in the Inland Mixed Zone of the MDV: (1) the distribution of ice sources; (2) the temporal aspects of ice melting; and (3) the relative significance of melting events in gullies. We show that significant erosion of gully channels can be achieved if geometrical and environmental conditions combine to concentrate ice where it can rapidly melt. In contrast, annual melting...
- Antarctica
- channels
- deposition
- discharge
- erosion
- erosion features
- fluid flow
- geomorphology
- ground water
- gullies
- ice
- imagery
- instruments
- landform evolution
- Landsat
- Mars
- McMurdo dry valleys
- melting
- meteorology
- planets
- remote sensing
- runoff
- satellite methods
- seasonal variations
- snow
- snowpack
- soils
- temperature
- terrestrial comparison
- terrestrial planets
- Victoria Land