A large new grater exposes the limits of water ice on Mars
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Water ice in the Martian mid-latitudes has advanced and retreated in response to variations in the planet's orbit, obliquity, and climate. A 150 m-diameter new impact crater near 35°N provides the lowest-latitude impact exposure of subsurface ice on Mars. This is the largest known ice-exposing crater and provides key constraints on Martian climate history. This crater indicates a regional, relatively pure ice deposit that is unstable and has nearly vanished. In the past, this deposit may have been tens of meters thick and extended equatorward of 35°N. We infer that it is overlain by pore ice emplaced during temporary stable intervals, due to recent climate variability. The marginal survival of ice here suggests that it is near the edge of shallow ice that regularly exchanges with the atmosphere.
Date Issued
2023-01-28
Date Acceptance
2022-11-18
Citation
Geophysical Research Letters, 2023, 50 (2), pp.1-9
ISSN
0094-8276
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Start Page
1
End Page
9
Journal / Book Title
Geophysical Research Letters
Volume
50
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2022 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Government sponsorship acknowledged and The Authors. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Identifier
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022GL100747
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2023-01-23