Publications
Filter Total Items: 915
Large wind ripples on Mars: A record of atmospheric evolution
Wind blowing over sand on Earth produces decimeter-wavelength ripples and hundred-meter– to kilometer-wavelength dunes: bedforms of two distinct size modes. Observations from the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal that Mars hosts a third stable wind-driven bedform, with meter-scale wavelengths. These bedforms are spatially uniform in size and typical
Authors
M. G. A. Lapotre, R. C. Ewing, M. P. Lamb, W. W. Fischer, J. P. Grotzinger, D. M. Rubin, K. W. Lewis, M. J. Ballard, Mitch D. Day, S. Gupta, S. G. Banham, N. T. Bridges, D. J. Des Marais, A. A. Fraeman, J. A. Grant, Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, D. W. Ming, M. A. Mischna, M. S. Rice, D. Y. Sumner, A. R. Vasavada, R. A. Yingst
Esperance: Multiple episodes of aqueous alteration involving fracture fills and coatings at Matijevic Hill, Mars
In the search for evidence of past aqueous activity by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, fracture-filling veins and rock coatings are prime candidates for exploration. At one location within a segment of remaining rim material surrounding Endeavour Crater, a set of “boxwork” fractures in an outcrop called Esperance are filled by a bright, hydrated, and highly siliceous (SiO2 ~ 66 wt%) materi
Authors
Benton C. Clark, Richard V. Morris, Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, William H. Farrand, Ralf Gellert, Bradley L. Jolliff, Raymond E. Arvidson, Steven W. Squyres, David W. Mittelfehldt, Douglas W. Ming, Albert S. Yen
Planetary caves’ role in astronaut bases and the search for life
Planetary caves are practically everywhere. Scientists have identified more than 200 lunar and more than 2000 Martian cave-related features. They’ve also found vents and fissures associated with water ice plumes on Saturnian, Jovian, and Neptunian moons. Recently, primary vents of two possible cryovolcanoes were identified on Pluto.
Authors
J. Judson Wynne, Timothy N. Titus, Penelope J. Boston
High concentrations of manganese and sulfur in deposits on Murray Ridge, Endeavour Crater, Mars
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE images and Opportunity rover observations of the ~22 km wide Noachian age Endeavour Crater on Mars show that the rim and surrounding terrains were densely fractured during the impact crater-forming event. Fractures have also propagated upward into the overlying Burns formation sandstones. Opportunity’s observations show that the western crater rim segment, called
Authors
Raymond E. Arvidson, Steven W. Squyres, Richard V. Morris, Andrew H. Knoll, Ralf Gellert, Benton C. Clark, Jeffrey G. Catalano, Bradley L. Jolliff, Scott M. McLennan, Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, Scott VanBommel, David W. Mittelfehldt, John P. Grotzinger, Edward A. Guinness, Jeffrey R. Johnson, James F. Bell, William H. Farrand, Nathan Stein, Valerie K. Fox, Matthew P. Golombek, Margaret A. G. Hinkle, Wendy M. Calvin, Paulo A. de Souza
The potassic sedimentary rocks in Gale Crater, Mars, as seen by ChemCam Onboard Curiosity
The Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity encountered potassium-rich clastic sedimentary rocks at two sites in Gale Crater, the waypoints Cooperstown and Kimberley. These rocks include several distinct meters thick sedimentary outcrops ranging from fine sandstone to conglomerate, interpreted to record an ancient fluvial or fluvio-deltaic depositional system. From ChemCam Laser-Induced Breakdown
Authors
Laetitia Le Deit, Nicolas Mangold, Olivier Forni, Agnès Cousin, Jeremie Lasue, Susanne Schröder, Roger C. Wiens, Dawn Y. Sumner, Cecile Fabre, Katherine M. Stack, Ryan Anderson, Diana L. Blaney, Samuel M. Clegg, Gilles Dromart, Martin Fisk, Olivier Gasnault, John P. Grotzinger, Sanjeev Gupta, Nina Lanza, Stephane Le Mouélic, Sylvestre Maurice, Scott M. McLennan, Pierre-Yves Meslin, Marion Nachon, Horton E. Newsom, Valerie Payre, William Rapin, Melissa Rice, Violaine Sautter, Allan H. Treiman
The tectonics of Titan: Global structural mapping from Cassini RADAR
The Cassini RADAR mapper has imaged elevated mountain ridge belts on Titan with a linear-to-arcuate morphology indicative of a tectonic origin. Systematic geomorphologic mapping of the ridges in Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) images reveals that the orientation of ridges is globally E–W and the ridges are more common near the equator than the poles. Comparison with a global topographic map reveals
Authors
Zac Yung-Chun Liu, Jani Radebaugh, Ron A. Harris, Eric H. Christiansen, Catherine D. Neish, Randolph L. Kirk, Ralph D. Lorenz
Fluvial erosion as a mechanism for crater modification on Titan
There are few identifiable impact craters on Titan, especially in the polar regions. One explanation for this observation is that the craters are being destroyed through fluvial processes, such as weathering, mass wasting, fluvial incision and deposition. In this work, we use a landscape evolution model to determine whether or not this is a viable mechanism for crater destruction on Titan. We find
Authors
Catherine D. Neish, J. L. Molaro, J. M. Lora, A.D. Howard, Randolph L. Kirk, P. Schenk, V.J. Bray, R. D. Lorenz
Nature, distribution, and origin of Titan’s Undifferentiated Plains
The Undifferentiated Plains on Titan, first mapped by Lopes et al. (Lopes, R.M.C. et al., 2010. Icarus, 205, 540–588), are vast expanses of terrains that appear radar-dark and fairly uniform in Cassini Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. As a result, these terrains are often referred to as “blandlands”. While the interpretation of several other geologic units on Titan – such as dunes, lakes, an
Authors
Rosaly Lopes, M. J. Malaska, A. Solomonidou, Gall A. Le, M.A. Janssen, Catherine D. Neish, E. P. Turtle, S. P. D. Birch, A. G. Hayes, J. Radebaugh, A. Coustenis, A. Schoenfeld, B.W. Stiles, Randolph L. Kirk, K. L. Mitchell, E. R. Stofan, K. J. Lawrence
Extracting accurate and precise topography from LROC narrow angle camera stereo observations
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) includes two identical Narrow Angle Cameras (NAC) that each provide 0.5 to 2.0 m scale images of the lunar surface. Although not designed as a stereo system, LROC can acquire NAC stereo observations over two or more orbits using at least one off-nadir slew. Digital terrain models (DTMs) are generated from sets of stereo images and registered to profil
Authors
M. R. Henriksen, M. R. Manheim, K. N. Burns, P. Seymour, E. J. Speyerer, A. Deran, A. K. Boyd, Elpitha Howington-Kraus PR, Mark R. Rosiek, Brent A. Archinal, M. S. Robinson
A revised surface age for the North Polar Layered Deposits of Mars
The North Polar Layered Deposits (NPLD) of Mars contain a complex stratigraphy that has been suggested to retain a record of past eccentricity- and obliquity-forced climate changes. The surface accumulation rate in the current climate can be constrained by the crater retention age. We scale NPLD crater diameters to account for icy target strength and compare surface age using a new production func
Authors
Margaret E. Landis, Shane Byrne, Ingrid J. Daubar, Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, Colin M. Dundas
Composition of conglomerates analyzed by the Curiosity rover: Implications for Gale Crater crust and sediment sources
No abstract available.
Authors
Nicolas Mangold, L.M. Thompson, O. Forni, C. Fabre, L. Le Deit, R. C. Wiens, A.J. Williams, R. Williams, Ryan Anderson, Diana L. Blaney, Fred J. Calef, Agnès Cousin, Samuel M. Clegg, Gilles Dromart, William E. Dietrich, Kenneth S. Edgett, Martin R. Fisk, Olivier Gasnault, Ralf Gellert, John P. Grotzinger, Linda C. Kah, Stephane Le Mouélic, Scott M. McLennan, Sylvestre Maurice, Pierre-Yves Meslin, Horton E. Newsom, Marisa C. Palucis, William Rapin, Violaine Sautter, Kirsten L. Siebach, Katherine M. Stack, Dawn Y. Sumner, Aileen Yingst
Mountain building on Io driven by deep faulting
Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io possesses some of the highest relief in the Solar System: massive, isolated mountain blocks that tower up to 17 km above the surrounding plains. These mountains are likely to result from pervasive compressive stresses induced by subsidence of the surface beneath the near-continual emplacement of volcanic material. The stress state that results from subsidence and warming
Authors
Michael T. Bland, William B. McKinnon