EP018-0008
Investigating present-day dune formation on Mars

Wednesday, 9 December 2020
Poster
Serina Diniega, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, Jalen Garner, Howard University, Washington DC, United States, Priscilla Schultz, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, United States, Joanna M Nield, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO14, United Kingdom, Giles Wiggs, University of Oxford, School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford, United Kingdom and Matthew C Baddock, Loughborough University, Geography, Loughborough, United Kingdom
Abstract:
While studies of aeolian sand dunes on different planetary bodies have yielded much information on the evolution of these features [1], little is known about the way in which dunes are first initiated. “Protodunes” are the small sand patches that eventually become large, organized sand dunes [2,3], and it is not known which environmental factors control the genesis and evolution of these early stage aeolian bedforms. A UK NERC-US NSF supported project to study The Origin of Aeolian Dunes (TOAD) seeks to address this question via detailed field measurements on the Earth [4]; an additional focus of this work is to identify candidate protodunes on Mars so as to compare their morphometrics to terrestrial analogs and to characterize their local environment for a comparison with environmental controls identified via the terrestrial field studies.

This presentation will focus on the martian investigation. Potential protodunes have been identified within HiRISE images, and we compare the morphometrics of protodunes on Mars and Earth, expanding on previous results [5]. Additionally, our original search for martian protodunes yielded fewer protodune candidates than expected. This led to questions about our identification criteria for finding protodunes, and/or about protodune stability within the present climate on Mars. We have investigated the second question by characterizing directional variability of winds strong enough to move sediment and topographic influences, both within the vicinity of candidate protodunes and around dune field upwind margins that lack candidate protodunes. From both measurement of candidate martian protodunes and characterization of the wind and surface environment where they are found, we seek to better understand martian dune formation timescales and environmental history.

[1] Diniega et al., 2017. Aeolian Res. 26, 5-27, doi:10.1016/j.aeolia.2016.10.001. [2] Nield, J.M., Wiggs, G.F., & Squirrell, R.S. 2011. ESPL, 36(4), 513-522, doi:10.1002/esp.2071. [3] Kocurek, G., Townsley, M., Yeh, E., Havholm, K.G., & Sweet, M.L., 1992. J. Sedimentary Res., 62(4), 622-635. [4] TOAD website, 2020. https://cmg.soton.ac.uk/research/projects/the-origin-of-aeolian-dunes-toad/. [5] Diniega et al., 2019. GSA Abstracts, 51 (5), 86-8, doi:10.1130/abs/2019AM-337747.

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