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- Title
Prolonged Record of Hydroclimatic Changes at Antoniadi Crater, Mars.
- Authors
Zaki, A. S.; Edgett, K. S.; Pajola, M.; Kite, E.; Davis, J. M.; Mangold, N.; Madof, A. S.; Lucchetti, A.; Grindrod, P.; Hughes, C. M.; Sangwan, K.; Thomas, N.; Schuster, M.; Gupta, S.; Cremonese, G.; Castelltort, S.
- Abstract
The first billion years of Martian geologic history consisted of surface environments and landscapes dramatically different from those seen today, with flowing liquid water sculpting river channels and ponding to form bodies of water. However, the hydro‐climatic context, the frequency, and the duration under which these systems existed remain uncertain. Addressing these fundamental questions may improve our understanding of early Mars climate. Here, we reconstruct a long‐lived archive consisting of an array of fluvial systems inside the Antoniadi crater––one of the largest lake basins on Mars (9.58 × 104 km2). We found that the fluvial activity occurred throughout four major intermittent active intervals during the Late Noachian to Early Amazonian (∼3.7 to >2.4 Ga). This resulted in at least two major lakes, which formed during periods of markedly increased surface runoff production. The record of these four riverine phases is preserved in fluvial ridges, valley networks, back‐stepping or down‐stepping fan‐shaped landforms, and terrace‐like formations within an outlet canyon. These morphologies point to lake‐controlled base‐level fluctuations suggestive of episodic precipitation‐fed surface runoff punctuated by intermittent catastrophic floods that were capable of breaching crater‐lake rims and incising outlet canyons. Fluvial‐deposit thickness, junction angles of channels, and lake morphometry suggest that riverine systems lasted at least 103–106 years and episodically occurred under primarily arid and semi‐arid climates. These findings place new regional constraints on the fluvial frequency, longevity, and climatic regime of one of the largest Martian lakes, thereby bolstering the hypothesis that episodic warming likely punctuated the planet's early history. Plain Language Summary: The planet Mars is now a vast desert. However, geologic evidence points to radically different kinds of landscapes in the past, with precipitation‐fed ancient rivers and lakes. As a consequence, questions have been raised about the climatic and environmental contexts that persisted during the formation of these hydrological records. Here, we have used high‐resolution remotely sensed data to constrain the volumes, frequency, and periodicity of an array of water‐formed landforms inside one of the largest lake systems on Mars that occupy the Antoniadi crater. We demonstrate that the Antoniadi crater was intermittently wet, hosting multiple rivers and at least two main bodies of standing water between 3.7 and 2.4 Ga. The morphometries of the lake and river systems imply that they episodically survived between a few thousand and 1 million years under arid climates. These findings make Antoniadi an interesting site for future Mars exploration dedicated to the potential ancient habitability of Mars because of such long‐lived fluvial history. Key Points: Antoniadi crater is the site of an ancient lake that was punctuated by locally and regionally wet conditions between 3.7 and 2.4 GaAntoniadi crater likely records at least four episodes of surface runoffThe river and lake systems at Antoniadi were probably active for 103–106 years, supporting long‐lived fluvial activity under arid climates
- Subjects
BODIES of water; MARS (Planet); MARTIAN exploration; WATERSHEDS; RIVER channels; FLUVIAL geomorphology; IMPACT craters
- Publication
Journal of Geophysical Research. Planets, 2023, Vol 128, Issue 7, p1
- ISSN
2169-9097
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1029/2022JE007606