Open AccessPutative shorelines in northern Arabia Terra, Mars
Author(s) -
Webb Valerie E.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: planets
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2003je002205
Subject(s) - geology , shore , landform , mars exploration program , amazonian , equipotential , evaporite , equipotential surface , elevation (ballistics) , geomorphology , erosion , bay , physical geography , oceanography , geography , astrobiology , amazon rainforest , geometry , cartography , ecology , physics , mathematics , structural basin , biology
Three putative shorelines first proposed by Parker et al. [1989] are topographically and morphologically evaluated within a 700,000 km 2 study area in northern Arabia Terra, Mars. Results are consistent with a shoreline interpretation for the Arabia and Deuteronilus contacts but do not support the proposed Acidalia shoreline. The Arabia contact follows an equipotential surface with a mean elevation of −3707 m and a mean deviation of ±13 m. For Deuteronilus, results suggest that the originally proposed shoreline represents two distinct, regional shorelines, because two separate portions of the original Deuteronilus contact approximate equipotential surfaces of −4200 m ± 5 m and −4000 m ± 6 m. For both the Deuteronilus and Arabia contacts, there is geomorphic evidence for erosion, and some landforms are similar to analogous terrestrial coastal landforms. These results permit, but do not prove, the past existence of an ocean ponded within the northern lowlands, possibly as recently as the Amazonian.