A MARS OCEAN HYDROGRAPH: CONSTRAINTS FROM INTEGRATED TERRESTRIAL SHORELINE ANALOG STUDY
Pleistocene Lake Bonneville and its modern Great Salt Lake remnant comprise a world-class terrestrial analog for Mars. Terrestrial shoreline criteria and the related process constraints are invaluable ground-truth for assessing and interpreting similar imaged shorelines on Mars. The shorelines represent the edge of the water body and allow estimation of volume. Distinctive constructional and erosional features enable interpretations of the geomorphic effectiveness of water and wind. Our integrated studies highlight direct comparisons of shoreline features and their morphometrics at the meter scale using new high-resolution data (LiDAR DEMs) of the Lake Bonneville basin, and recently released CTX and HiRISE imagery for Mars.
On Earth, the global sea level curve enables worldwide correlations based on linkages of tectonics, eustasy, and climate. Sequence stratigraphic models provide powerful predictors for facies and stratal architecture at wide ranging spatial and temporal scales. Lakes are particularly sensitive systems that record cycles correlative to ocean dynamics and the global water budget.
A hydrograph can provide a crucial planetary reference datum for Mars. Defining global Noachian to Hesperian hydroclimatic oscillations, periods of water stability, and the relative geomorphic relationships of shorelines and landforms of the Mars ocean base level can be truly transformative. The cumulative impact of our study is to provide a planetary Mars hydrograph that describes boundary conditions for ancient global water abundance, and provides a framework model of facies and depositional environments that can guide for future mission explorations and landing sites.