Surface boulder banding indicates Martian debris-covered glaciers formed over multiple glaciations.

ABSTRACT: Glacial landforms, including lobate debris aprons, are a global water ice reservoir on Mars preserving ice from past periods when high orbital obliquity permitted nonpolar ice accumulation. Numerous studies have noted morphological similarities between lobate debris aprons and terrestrial debris-covered glaciers, an interpretation supported by radar observations. On Earth and Mars, these landforms consist of a core of flowing ice covered by a rocky lag. Terrestrial debris-covered glaciers advance in response to climate forcing driven by obliquity-paced changes to ice mass balance. However, on Mars, it is not known whether glacial landforms emplaced over the past 300 to 800 formed during a single, long deposition event or during multiple glaciations. Here, we show that boulders atop 45 loba

SUBMITTER: Levy JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7848752 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature