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Volume 13: Number 3: Article 3
Geomorphology of Selected Massifs on the Plains of Cydonia, Mars
David C. Pieri, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute
of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109
Mars exhibits a remarkable hemispherical dichotomy that divides the
planet into smooth, relatively sparsely-cratered, lowland plains and
rough, heavily-cratered upland terrains. At some places along the boundary
between the two, there exist fields of isolated massifs that
appear to be erosional remnant outliers of the dichotomy boundary scarp.
In recent high-resolution images (4-5m/pixel) acquired by the Mars Orbiter
Camera (MOC), these isolated massifs appear to have been subjected
to at least several erosional and depositional process regimes, and
appear to exhibit grossly layered structures. The geomorphically muted
appearance of these massifs, the apparent presence of superjacent
sediment "drapes" and their scattered planimetric distribution are evocative
of terrestrial submarine and sub-lacustrine isolated massifs
(of a variety of origins) seen in bathymetric imaging. Recently acquired
MOC images of the famous "Face on Mars" massif, first identified
in Viking Orbiter images, reinforce its interpretation as an unremarkable
individual within a field of isolated massifs in Cydonia.
Keywords: Mars, Cydonia, planetary geomorphology, Mars hemispherical
dichotomy, submarine processes, "Face on Mars"
FULL TEXT:
Geomorphology of Selected Massifs on the Plains of Cydonia, Mars
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