EXPLORING THE INTERACTION BETWEEN CLIMATE, HYDROLOGY, AND IMPACT CRATERING ON MARS

Weiss, David Kutai

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Overview

Year:: 2017
Contributor:: Weiss, David Kutai (creator); Head, James (Advisor); Parmentier, Marc (Reader); Pieters, Carle (Reader); Lee, Jung-Eun (Reader); Garvin, James (Reader); Brown University. Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: Geology; Meteorite craters; Mars (Planet)
Extent:: 22, 478 p.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0D21W3Z

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Abstract:: The nature of the early martian climate, hydrological cycle, and their relationship to the impact cratering process has remained enigmatic, but are critically important in understanding the geologic history of Mars. In Chapter 1, we evaluate the origins of double-layered ejecta (DLE) craters, and assess whether their unique ejecta morphology could be controlled by previously proposed models involving either atmospheric interactions or ice within the target. We find that DLE craters are produced by impacts into surface ice sheets that were emplaced in the mid-latitudes during periods of higher obliquity. In Chapter 2, we evaluate whether the degraded Noachian highland craters could have been modified in an environment much different than the canonically inferred warm and wet Noachian climate. We find that the crater morphology and predicted degradation scenarios are plausibly consistent with crater formation and modification in an icy highlands scenario. In Chapter 3, we provide an end-to-end assessment of the process of impact ejecta-induced melting to provide quantitative constraints on the history of impact-related fluvial erosion on Mars. We also document several impact craters which exhibit evidence for melting of surface ice following their formation, raising the possibility of a cold/icy background climate in the Noachian. In Chapter 4, we assess the state of groundwater and pore-ice in the subsurface in order to evaluate the hydrologic history of Mars. Our results suggest that the martian groundwater system is supply-limited, with insufficient groundwater to fill the pore-space of the subsurface, and that the global groundwater system froze over in a more ancient period in Mars history. In Chapter 5, we evaluate whether the enigmatic “honeycomb terrain” could be formed through diapirism, and review the climatic implications for such an origin. We find that both ice and salt diapirism are physically viable, but the higher thicknesses of salt predicted requires a prohibitively large water volume. We thus consider ice diapirism in a cold/ icy Noachian climate the likely origin. Finally, in Chapter 6 we review how the interaction between climate, hydrology, and impact cratering may offer important clues to the geologic history of Mars and explore avenues for future work.
Notes:: Thesis (Ph. D.)--Brown University, 2017

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Rights: In Copyright
Restrictions on Use: Collection is open for research.

Citation

Weiss, David Kutai, "EXPLORING THE INTERACTION BETWEEN CLIMATE, HYDROLOGY, AND IMPACT CRATERING ON MARS" (2017). Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0D21W3Z

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Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations for the Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences department.
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