A New Geologic Map of the Hale-Bond Region, Northern Argyre Basin

Abstract

The Argyre Basin, located at 51°S and 317°E, is one of the most prominent impact basins on Mars. Among various scenarios for its geologic evolution, it has long been speculated that water might have accumulated within the Argyre Basin to a point where spillover occurred th at carved the large northern outflow channel Uzboi Vallis. Testing such a hypothesis is complicated by the fact that this spillover most likely, if at all, occurred very early in Martian history with ample time for subsequent modification of the terrain by erosional and depositional processes, as well as by two large impacts, Hale and Bond (Fig. 1). Based on a detailed investigationof the Argyre Basin with Viking, MOLA and MOC data, evidence for such spillover remained elusive. Here we use data from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) and other modern data to reinvestigate and map in detail the Hale-Bond area in order to newly assess the evidence for the putative spillover. The topographic base map of the Hale-Bond Region is derived from an HRSC orthoimage and a Digital Terrain Model (DTM). Following the cartographic concept of the large-scale series Topographic Image Map Mars 1:200,000 as a guideline, our map is based on the technical specifications concerning reference bodies, map projection and many aspects with regard to the grid systems and nomenclature.