Three decades of slope streak activity on Mars
Abstract
Slope streaks are surficial mass movements that are abundant in the dust-covered regions of Mars. Targeting of slope streaks seen in Viking images with the Mars Orbiter Camera provides observations of slope streak dust activity over two to three decades. In all study areas, new and persisting dark slope streaks are observed. Slope streaks disappeared in one area, with persisting streaks nearby. New slope streaks are found to be systematically darker than persisting streaks, which indicates gradual fading. Far more slope streaks formed at the study sites than have faded from visibility. The rate of formation at the study sites was 0.03 new slope streaks per existing streak per Mars year. Bright slope streaks do not presently form in sudden events as dark slope streaks do. Instead, bright streaks might form from old dark slope streaks, perhaps transitioning through a partially faded stage.
Additional Information
© 2007 Elsevier Inc. Received 7 January 2007; revised 19 March 2007; available online 5 May 2007. We thank Taharih Motazedian and David Gremminger for their help with image surveys, Ken Edgett and Nicolas Mangold for insightful discussions, and MSSS for the Viking slope streak monitoring. This work was supported by the NASA Mars Data Analysis Program and by the NASA Astrobiology Institute under Cooperative Agreement No. NNA04CC08A issued through the Office of Space Science. LT was supported by a Space Grant fellowship.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 36810
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.icarus.2007.04.026
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20130207-113434626
- NNA04CC08A
- NASA
- Space Grant fellowship
- Created
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2013-02-08Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field