Investigating Enigmatic Pits in the North Polar Layered Deposits

Kurzfassung

The North Polar Layered Deposits (NPLD) are layers of dust and water ice within Planum Boreum at the north pole of Mars. The NPLD contains spiral troughs that expose interior layers and are capped by a bright north polar residual ice cap. Intriguing features within the NPLD are pits of unknown origin, which typically appear within the troughs as deeply shadowed circular features, usually between 1-5 meters in diameter [1]. Furthermore, similar pits have been identified in the North Residual Cap (NRC), which is the uppermost, ice-rich layer of the NPLD [2]. Understanding the age, evolution, and current mass balance of the NPLD is of major interest in Mars research [3]. The geologic setting and morphology of the pits indicate possible volatile loss that forms the void space, so actively investigating the rate of pit formation and evolution may illuminate recent volatile loss in the NPLD. Ultimately, studying the pits is unexplored research that may further explain the structure of the NPLD and advance our knowledge of Mars’ climate history.