Steamlined Landforms

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona, Posted on: Thursday, 16 August 2007, 06:04 CDT Download full size image

This HiRISE image shows part of a semi-circular embayment in the side wall of a valley. The valley is located in the southern hemisphere of Mars near the rim of the Argyre impact basin in the western Charitum Montes. The bottom of the image is near the top of the valley side wall and the top of the image shows the edge of the valley floor.

Several streamlined landforms can be seen on the wall of the valley. They have irregular shapes but are generally streamlined and are oriented in the direction of maximum slope. The streamlined hills vary in dimensions with widths up to hundreds of meters and lengths of more than a kilometer.

Near the top of the valley wall (near the bottom of the image) are several long and linear grooves. The grooves are locally parallel and are also oriented in the approximate downhill direction.

These morphologies may have formed from mass wasting processes, fluvial erosion, or possibly erosion from strong winds. However, landforms in the surrounding area strongly suggest that this region was sculpted by glacial processes. The grooves therefore may have formed by glacial erosion in which rocks at the bottom of the ice abrade and scour the underlying bedrock.The orientation and morphology of the streamlined hills is also consistent with that of glacially sculpted bedrock or subglacial till deposits.

Future high resolution stereo imaging should reveal more diagnostic details, such as shape, symmetry, and relief, in the streamlined features.

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