Project description
Exploring the theory of ice flows forming Martian mega canyons
Mars had liquid water flowing in valleys, lakes and possibly oceans 3.5 billion years ago. This early climate collapsed around 3 billion years ago with the loss of most of the atmosphere, turning Mars into a global frozen desert. This collapse corresponds with the formation of Mars’ outflow channels, the largest canyons in the Solar System, thought to be the result of mega flooding. The ERC-funded IceFloods project hypothesises that the largest canyon, Kasei Valles, was instead carved by fast-flowing ice based on its scale and shape. The project will test this theory using multiple approaches, from fluid dynamics to geomorphology, potentially altering our view of how the early Martian climate and hydrology collapsed, ending conditions able to sustain life.
Objective
Mars is a hyperarid, global cryosphere, and likely has been for over 3 Gyr. However, during the so-called early Mars period 4-3.5 Gyr go, water flowed within thousands of valleys, in crater lakes, producing ancient deltas, building ice sheets, and possibly ponding in oceans. Surface liquid water was stable on Mars coinciding with the origin of life on Earth. However, this early benign climate collapsed with the continued loss of Mars atmosphere in the Hesperian period, ~3.5-3 Gyr ago. Outflow channels, megacanyons among the largest erosive landforms in the Solar System, date from this time. The largest one, Kasei valles, is so vast that the volumes of water involved in its formation were an important fraction of Mars total water inventory, and its outflow could have filled an ocean on the martian lowlands. In the current view, Kasei Valles was formed by a megaflood sourced from the catastrophic release of a near-surface aquifer, building on the basis of terrestrial analogue comparisons. This work aims to challenge this view. In this project I will explore the hypothesis that Kasei Valles was eroded by an ice stream, a region of channelized, fast-flowing ice within an ice sheet, based on its scale, location, and geomorphology, and reinvestigate the origin of other outflow channels under this perspective. Drawing from novel fluid dynamic simulations, analogue field work, geological mapping, and climate modelling, I will test the Ice flood hypothesis, which if correct would radically change our understanding of Mars transitional Hesperian climate, the nature of its hydrological cycle, and the possibility of a Hesperian ocean. Outflow channels hold a key for understanding the collapse of Mars early climate and hydrological system, the end of global conditions able to support life, and the rise of the global cryosphere that would come to dominate Mars climate.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- humanitiesartsvisual arts
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesgeologygeomorphology
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesphysical geographyglaciology
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Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsHost institution
75794 Paris
France