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Accumulation and Erosion of Mars' South Polar Layered Deposits
Roberto Seu,1*Roger J. Phillips,2Giovanni Alberti,3Daniela Biccari,1Francesco Bonaventura,4Marco Bortone,3Diego Calabrese,5Bruce A. Campbell,6Marco Cartacci,1Lynn M. Carter,6Claudio Catallo,5Anna Croce,5Renato Croci,5Marco Cutigni,1Antonio Di Placido,4Salvatore Dinardo,3Costanzo Federico,7Enrico Flamini,8Franco Fois,5Alessandro Frigeri,7Oreste Fuga,1Emanuele Giacomoni,1Yonggyu Gim,9Mauro Guelfi,5John W. Holt,10Wlodek Kofman,11Carlton J. Leuschen,12Lucia Marinangeli,13Paolo Marras,4Arturo Masdea,1Stefania Mattei,3Riccardo Mecozzi,5Sarah M. Milkovich,9Antonio Morlupi,4Jérémie Mouginot,11Roberto Orosei,14Claudio Papa,3Tobia Paternò,4Paolo Persi del Marmo,1Elena Pettinelli,15Giulia Pica,3Giovanni Picardi,1Jeffrey J. Plaut,9Marco Provenziani,1Nathaniel E. Putzig,2Federica Russo,1Ali Safaeinili,9Giuseppe Salzillo,3Maria Rosaria Santovito,3Suzanne E. Smrekar,9Barbara Tattarletti,4Danilo Vicari4
Mars' polar regions are covered with ice-rich layered depositsthat potentially contain a record of climate variations. Thesounding radar SHARAD on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mappeddetailed subsurface stratigraphy in the Promethei Lingula regionof the south polar plateau, Planum Australe. Radar reflectionsinterpreted as layers are correlated across adjacent orbitsand are continuous for up to 150 kilometers along spacecraftorbital tracks. The reflectors are often separated into discretereflector sequences, and strong echoes are seen as deep as 1kilometer. In some cases, the sequences are dipping with respectto each other, suggesting an interdepositional period of erosion.In Australe Sulci, layers are exhumed, indicating recent erosion.
1 Dipartimento INFOCOM, Università di Roma "La Sapienza," I-00184 Rome, Italy. 2 Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA. 3 Consorzio di Ricerca Sistemi di Telesensori Avanzati, I-80125 Naples, Italy. 4 Info Solution Spa, I-00131 Rome, Italy. 5 Thales Alenia Space Italia, I-00131 Rome, Italy. 6 Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013–7012, USA. 7 Università di Perugia, I-06123 Perugia, Italy. 8 Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, I-00198 Rome, Italy. 9 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. 10 University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78758, USA. 11 CNRS and Université Joseph Fourier, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France. 12 University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045–7612, USA. 13 International Research School of Planetary Sciences, I-65127 Pescara, Italy. 14 Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, I-00133 Rome, Italy. 15 Università Roma Tre, I-00146 Rome, Italy.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: roberto.seu{at}uniroma1.it
