Claritas rise, Mars: Pre-Tharsis magmatism?
Abstract
Claritas rise is a prominent ancient (Noachian) center of tectonism identified through investigation of comprehensive paleotectonic information of the western hemisphere of Mars. This center is interpreted to be the result of magmatic-driven activity, including uplift and associated tectonism, as well as possible hydrothermal activity. Coupled with its ancient stratigraphy, high density of impact craters, and complex structure, a possible magnetic signature may indicate that it formed during an ancient period of Mars' evolution, such as when the dynamo was in operation. As Tharsis lacks magnetic signatures, Claritas rise may pre-date the development of Tharsis or mark incipient development, since some of the crustal materials underlying Tharsis and older parts of the magmatic complex, respectively, could have been highly resurfaced, destroying any remanent magnetism. Here, we detail the significant characteristics of the Claritas rise, and present a case for why it should be targeted by the Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and Mars Express spacecrafts, as well as be considered as a prime target for future tier-scalable robotic reconnaissance.
Additional Information
Copyright © 2009 Elsevier. Received 22 May 2008; accepted 16 March 2009. Available online 31 March 2009. The authors are indebted to two technical reviewers, Daniel Mège and an anonymous reviewer, whose efforts have resulted in a significantly improved manuscript. We are also appreciative of helpful inputs by H. Jay Melosh, as well as machine learning-related information contributed by Rebecca Castano and Brad Dalton (Section 3.1). James Dohm was supported by the NASA Mars Data Analysis Program, Javier Ruiz by a contract I3P with the CSIC, co-financed from the European Social Fund, Jean-Pierre Williams by the California Institute of Technology through the O. K. Earl Postdoctoral Fellowship and the National Science Foundations Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Grants program (AST-0709151), Patrick McGuire by a Robert M. Walker senior research fellowship from the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, and by NASA funds through the Applied Physics Laboratory, under subcontract from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL Contract #1277793).Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 15647
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2009.03.012
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20090908-083703322
- NASA
- European Social Fund
- AST-0709151
- NSF
- McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences
- 1277793
- JPL
- Created
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2009-09-25Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field