Active Boulder Movement at High Martian Latitudes

Colin M Dundas (1) , Michael T Mellon (2) , Susan J. Conway (3) , Renaldo Gastineau (3, 4)

1 USGS - United States Geological Survey
2 CCAPS - Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science
3 LPG - Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique [UMR 6112]
4 ISTerre - Institut des Sciences de la Terre

Lobate stony landforms occur on steep slopes at high latitudes on Mars. We demonstrate active boulder movement at seven such sites. Submeter-scale boulders frequently move distances of a few meters. The movement is concentrated in the vicinity of the lobate landforms but also occurs on other slopes. This provides evidence for a newly discovered, common style of activity on Mars, which may play an important role in slope degradation. It also opens the possibility that the lobate features are currently forming in the absence of significant volumes of liquid water.

Domaines: Planétologie

Colin M Dundas, Michael T Mellon, Susan J. Conway, Renaldo Gastineau. Active Boulder Movement at High Martian Latitudes. Geophysical Research Letters, 2019, 46 (10), pp.5075-5082. ⟨10.1029/2019GL082293⟩. ⟨hal-02268389⟩