Recent debris flows on Mars: Seasonal observations of the Russell Crater dune field

Abstract

Debris flows occur on slopes in the Russell Crater dune field. The morphology of the erosion features resembles terrestrial viscous slurry flows (mudflows) and suggests that a flow of fine-grained material mixed with liquid water might have been responsible for their formation. Seasonal MGS-TES and -MOC imagery based observations of the dune field show (1) an annual frosting and defrosting cycle and (2) that liquid H2O could be stable within a limited time period in the summer of the southern hemisphere. These observations lead to the conclusion that debris flows in the Russell Crater dune field may form under current climatic conditions by episodic or seasonal melting of small amounts of autumn/winter condensed water ice.