EXPLORING A WATER TO WIND TRANSITIONING LANDSCAPE IN DEEP SPRINGS CALIFORNIA AS AN ANALOG FOR ANCIENT AND MODERN MARTIAN ENVIRONMENTS (Invited Presentation)

The surfaces of Earth and Mars have been shaped by fluvial and aeolian processes. Understanding the resulting landscape from each of these is critical to understanding changes in climate. On Earth, several approaches are taken to observe and study surface features created by wind and water (e.g. remote sensing, field methods). The observed surface morphologies created by wind and water on other planetary bodies, such as Mars, however, are limited by the resolution of remote sensing data and similarity to analogous systems on Earth. In this work, we examine Deep Springs playa in California using field measurements and remote sensing methods and compare our findings with similar environments on Mars.

The Deep Springs playa system reflects fluvio-lacustrine processes in its interior and transitions to aeolian-dominated processes outward toward the playa’s margins, serving as an analog for a wet-to-dry transitioning landscape on Mars. In-situ weather station data and field observations collected over 34 months illustrate the interplay between aeolian and lacustrine processes, providing context for interpreting the observed geomorphology in satellite and drone aerial images. Our results show a consistent distal-to-proximal geomorphic transition in the landscape defined by the changing appearances of various surface features (e.g., polygonal fractures, wave ripples, and evaporite deposits). Most notably, crescent-shaped sedimentary deposits, originally suspected to be related to barchan dunes, proved unrelated to aeolian processes. Similarly shaped deposits have been observed on Mars, and our results suggest that the morphology alone is insufficient to interpret these crescent-shaped features as paleo-dunes without additional context. The surface patterns studied in Deep Springs reflect an environment that was also present in many locations during Mars’ transition from wet-to-dry. The processes, sedimentary features, and climate drivers at Deep Springs provide a potential framework for identifying and interpreting other similar interactions between fluvio-lacustrine and aeolian systems images and data acquired from orbit and on the surface of Earth, Mars, and beyond.