Written by Dr. Aaron Zent, NASA - Ames Research Center ...(Click here to return to: Field Updates)
Written by Dr. Aaron Zent, NASA - Ames Research Center ...
The Slope Weathering Study is an attempt to understand the processes that form hillslopes here in the arctic, on both the impact breccia, which is mostly powdered rock, and the surrounding rocks, which are still mostly intact. The slopes in each have unique forms, partly due to climate, and partly due to the fact that the impact process turned the target rocks to powder, or brecciated them. On Mars, there have also been many impacts, and there is probably a great deal of impact breccia. By understanding how brecciation and climate each contribute to landform here on Earth, we hope to be able to better interpret the martian climate, based upon the landforms we observe on Mars.
In the last five days, we have identified one hillside in the breccia, and one in the surrounding rock. On both, we have measured the hillsides, collected ground penetrating radar data to map subsurface ice distributions, used global positioning satellite data to locate key features, sampled ground water and measured its flow rate, deployed long term light meters and temperature loggers, and otherwise tried in every way we can think of to document the movement of water and solar energy through the hillslope. Back at the office at NASA-Ames, we will use a computer to model the processes and landforms that we see here in the crater. The final step is to move the hillslopes, in the computer, to Mars, and see how the hillslopes evolve there. We can compare the predictions of our models, to the observations of Mars from orbital spacecraft, to see what we can learn of the climate in which the martian hillslopes developed.