Tsunami waves extensively resurfaced the shorelines of an early Martian ocean
Rodriguez, J. Alexis P. (NASA Ames Research Center)
Fairén, Alberto G. (Cornell University. Department of Astronomy)
Tanaka, Kenneth L. (United States Geological Survey)
Zarroca Bonet, Mario (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Geologia)
Linares, Rogelio (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Geologia)
Platz, Thomas (Freie Universität Berlin. Planetary Sciences and Remote Sensing)
Komatsu, Goro (Università d'Annunzio. International Research School of Planetary Sciences)
Miyamoto, Hideaki (University of Tokyo. The University Museum)
Kargel, Jeffrey S. (University of Arizona. Department of Hydrology & Water Resources)
Yan, Jianguo (Wuhan University. State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing)
Gulick, Virginia C (SETI Institute)
Higuchi, Kana (Centro de Astrobiología (Madrid))
Baker, Victor R. (University of Arizona. Department of Hydrology & Water Resources)
Glines, Natalie (SETI Institute)

Data:	2016
Resum:	It has been proposed that ~3. 4 billion years ago an ocean fed by enormous catastrophic floods covered most of the Martian northern lowlands. However, a persistent problem with this hypothesis is the lack of definitive paleoshoreline features. Here, based on geomorphic and thermal image mapping in the circum-Chryse and northwestern Arabia Terra regions of the northern plains, in combination with numerical analyses, we show evidence for two enormous tsunami events possibly triggered by bolide impacts, resulting in craters ~30 km in diameter and occurring perhaps a few million years apart. The tsunamis produced widespread littoral landforms, including run-up water-ice-rich and bouldery lobes, which extended tens to hundreds of kilometers over gently sloping plains and boundary cratered highlands, as well as backwash channels where wave retreat occurred on highland-boundary surfaces. The ice-rich lobes formed in association with the younger tsunami, showing that their emplacement took place following a transition into a colder global climatic regime that occurred after the older tsunami event. We conclude that, on early Mars, tsunamis played a major role in generating and resurfacing coastal terrains.
Ajuts:	European Commission 307496
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Publicat a:	Scientific reports, Vol. 6 (May 2016) , art. 25106, ISSN 2045-2322

DOI: 10.1038/srep25106
PMID: 27196957

8 p, 2.1 MB

El registre apareix a les col·leccions:
Articles > Articles de recerca
Articles > Articles publicats