Publication Date:
2011-07-01
Description:
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Mars Exploration Program is focused on understanding the past or present habitability of Mars (MEPAG, 2010). Central to this aim is determining the history of liquid water on Mars. Some of the most salient evidence for liquid water is giant outflow channels that debouch into Chryse Planitia, hypothesized to be part of an ancient Martian ocean (Parker et al., 1993; Head et al., 1999; Perron et al., 2007; Di Achille and Hynek, 2010). An ocean should be a fertile nursery for Martian life, based on terrestrial evidence (e.g., Walter et al., 1980; Van Kranendonk et al., 2003). Thus, understanding whether the streamlined forms around Chryse Planitia were created in the outflow channels or within the hypothesized ocean contributes to identifying habitable zones on Mars...
Print ISSN:
0091-7613
Electronic ISSN:
1943-2682
Topics:
Geosciences
