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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS,
VOL. 33,
L20202,
5 PP., 2006
doi:10.1029/2006GL027471
Can freezing cause floods on Mars?
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Floodwaters on Mars likely originated from aquifers confined below a cryosphere. We use an analytical solution to examine freezing-induced pressurization as a mechanism for releasing groundwater. The results suggest that freezing of an aquifer of global extent under the optimal conditions, i.e., perfectly confined and with low compressibility and high permeability relative to the terrestrial analogs, can release enough floodwaters to carve an individual outflow channel, but not to explain the large total flood volume required to form the all of the outflow channels. It can also produce discharges comparable to those required for carving the outflow channels by repeated floods.
Received 18 July 2006; accepted 7 September 2006; published 27 October 2006.
Citation: (2006), Can freezing cause floods on Mars?, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L20202, doi:10.1029/2006GL027471.
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