Slope streak formation and dust deposition rates on Mars
Abstract
The Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) has imaged, sometimes repeatedly, mass movements known as slope streaks, which are abundant in the dust-covered regions on Mars. They are among the few known examples of contemporary surface changes. A survey of 173 collocated image pairs indicates that these features are currently forming at a high rate of ∼7% per existing streak, per Martian year. Either there is a complete turnover within a few decades or the streak population is currently increasing rapidly. Large spatial, as well as possible temporal, variations in the formation rate are obtained from these data. Streaks do not appear to fade over time periods comparable to their inverse formation rate of ∼28 years, as seen by analysis of Viking Orbiter images containing streaks that are still visible in MOC images. Gradual or stochastic variations in dust deposition may be needed to explain observations of changes in the formation rate, and its current imbalance with the fading rate.
Additional Information
Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union. Received 23 May 2003; revised 21 August 2003; accepted 24 October 2003; published 23 December 2003. We wish to thank Glenn Bennett and Lori Fenton for help with ISIS processing of Viking images, Mark Richardson for discussions concerning the Martian dust cycle, Re'em Sari for a conversation on Bayesian statistics, and Robert Sullivan and Vic Baker for helpful reviews. This study was supported by NASA's Mars Data Analysis Program, grant NAG 5-13232.Attached Files
Published - AHAjgre03.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 13033
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:AHAjgre03
- NAG 5-13232
- NASA
- Created
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2009-01-16Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field