Small Scale Topographical Characterization of Oxia Planum, Mars

S. Douté (1)

1 IPAG - Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble

Oxia Planum, in the Arabia Terra region of Mars, will be the site of ExoMars Rosalind Franklin Rover exploration in 2021. Oxia Planum, contains Noachian (i.e. ancient, > 3.7 Ga) terrains that become increasingly eroded towards the crustal dichotomy which separates the ancient southern highlands from the younger southern lowlands. The site has a rich geological history showing diverse aqueous episodes during the Noachian, followed by later volcanic and aeolian/erosional activity. Oxia Planum contains abundant phyllosilicate materials. We perform the topographical characterization of parts of Oxia Planum at metric to hectometric horizontal scales by generating improved high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs). In this work we focus on slope at different scales that are useful to constrain past and present geological processes and to prepare the future traverse of the rover.

Mots clés: Mars; Oxia Planum; topography

Domaines: Planétologie; Traitement du signal et de l'image [eess.SP]

S. Douté. Small Scale Topographical Characterization of Oxia Planum, Mars. EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2019, Sep 2019, Geneva, Switzerland. ⟨hal-02395063⟩