GSA Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, USA - 2016

Paper No. 20-3
Presentation Time: 8:40 AM

STEPPED FANS AND FACIES-EQUIVALENT PHYLLOSILICATES IN COPRATES CATENA, MARS


GRINDROD, Peter, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Centre for Planetary Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX, United Kingdom, WARNER, Nicholas H., Department of Geological Sciences, State University of New York at Geneseo, 1 College Circle, Geneseo, Geneseo, NY 14454, HOBLEY, Daniel E.J., Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2200 Colorado Avenue, Boulder, CO 80309 and GUPTA, Sanjeev, Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom, p.grindrod@ucl.ac.uk

Light-toned layered deposits on Mars are a globally-pervasive record of the sedimentary history of the planet. These deposits exhibit evidence for hydrous mineral phases and aqueous activity, and thus help to define the habitability through time. They are therefore high priority exploration targets for current and future missions. Stepped fan deposits and phyllosilicate mineralogies are relatively common features on Mars but have not previously been found in association with each other. Both of these features are widely accepted to be the result of aqueous processes but the assumed role and nature of any water varies.

In this study we have investigated two stepped fan deposits in Coprates Catena, Mars, which have a genetic link to light-toned material that is rich in Fe-Mg phyllosilicate alteration phases. Although of different sizes and in separate, but adjacent, trough-like depressions, we identify similar features at these stepped fans and phyllosilicates that are indicative of similar formation conditions and processes. Our observations of the overall geomorphology, mineralogy and chronology of these features are consistent with a two stage formation process, whereby deposition in the troughs first occurs into shallow standing water or playas, forming fluvial or alluvial fans that terminate in delta deposits and interfinger with interpreted lacustrine facies, with a later period of deposition under sub-aerial conditions, forming alluvial fan deposits. We suggest that the distinctive stepped appearance of these fans is the result of aeolian erosion, and is not a primary depositional feature. This combined formation framework for stepped fans and phyllosilicates can also explain other similar features on Mars, and adds to the growing evidence of fluvial activity in the equatorial region of Mars during the Hesperian and Amazonian.