Martian Geological record from orbital data

Séminaire IPAG de Cathy Quantin-Nataf (Univ. Lyon 1), jeudi 20 juin 2013 à 11h00, IPAG seminar room

Since 1996, four orbiters have reached the red planet with multiple remote sensing captors. Three are still acquiring data with spatial resolution down to 25 cm per pixel. Gathering this large diversity of data, we assess the topography, the morphology and the mineralogy of the surface of Mars from global scale to locale scale. The combination of these data allows geological investigations and reconstitutions of the climatic and geological evolution of Mars. I will present achieved and ongoing studies of the research group of Lyon working on geological evolution of Mars (projet ERC eMars/Lyon1). Results on the Martian primitive crust and its possible serpentinization will be presented. Results about the quantification of the erosion rate under the putative early warmer and wetter Martian climate will be presented too. These results require age surface estimations that are derived from crater count chronology. Widely used, this method has however large uncertainties. Results about this method for age determination of surfaces younger than 1 Gy will be presented. To do so, a travel to the Moon will be necessary to better constrain Mars chronology !