%0 Journal Article
%A Fairén, Alberto G.
%A Dohm, James M.
%A Baker, Victor R.
%A Pablo Hernández, Miguel Ángel de
%A Ruiz Pérez, Javier
%A Ferris, Justin C.
%A Anderson, Robert C.
%T Episodic flood inundations of the northern plains of Mars
%D 2003
%@ 1054-1381
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/56773
%X Throughout the recorded history of Mars, liquid water has distinctly shaped its landscape, including the prominent circum-Chryse and thenorthwestern slope valleys outflow channel systems, and the extremely flat northern plains topography at the distal reaches of these outflowchannel systems. Paleotopographic reconstructions of the Tharsis magmatic complex reveal the existence of an Europe-sized Noachiandrainage basin and subsequent aquifer system in eastern Tharsis. This basin is proposed to have sourced outburst floodwaters that sculpted theoutflow channels, and ponded to form various hypothesized oceans, seas, and lakes episodically through time. These floodwaters decreasedin volume with time due to inadequate groundwater recharge of the Tharsis aquifer system. Martian topography, as observed from the MarsOrbiter Laser Altimeter, corresponds well to these ancient flood inundations, including the approximated shorelines that have been proposedfor the northern plains. Stratigraphy, geomorphology, and topography record at least one great Noachian-Early Hesperian northern plainsocean, a Late Hesperian sea inset within the margin of the high water marks of the previous ocean, and a number of widely distributedminor lakes that may represent a reduced Late Hesperian sea, or ponded waters in the deepest reaches of the northern plains related to minorTharsis- and Elysium-induced Amazonian flooding.
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