Accumulation and erosion of Mars' south polar layered deposits

Roberto Seu (1) , Roger Phillips (2) , Giovanni Alberti (3) , Daniela Biccari (1) , Francesco Bonaventura (4) , Marco Bortone (3) , Diego Calabrese (5) , Bruce A. Campbell (6) , Marco Cartacci (1) , Lynn M. Carter (6) , Claudio Catallo (5) , Anna Croce (5) , Renato Croci (5) , Marco Cutigni (1) , Antonio Di Placido (4) , Salvatore Dinardo (3) , Costanzo Federico (7) , Enrico Flamini (8) , Franco Fois (5) , Alessandro Frigeri (7) , Oreste Fuga (1) , Emanuele Giacomoni (1) , Y. Gim (9) , Mauro Guelfi (5) , John W. Holt (10) , Wlodek Kofman (11) , Carlton Leuschen (12) , L. Marinangeli (13) , Paolo Marras (4) , Arturo Masdea (1) , Stefania Mattei (3) , Riccardo Mecozzi (5) , S. Milkovich (9) , Antonio Morlupi (4) , Jeremie Mouginot (11) , R. Orosei (14) , Claudio Papa (3) , Tobia Paterno (4) , Paolo Persi del Marmo (1) , Elena Pettinelli (15) , Giulia Pica (3) , Giovanni Picardi (1) , Jeffrey Plaut (9) , Marco Provenziani (1) , Nathaniel E. Putzig (2) , Federica Russo (1) , Ali Safaeinili (9) , Giuseppe Salzillo (3) , Maria Rosaria Santovito (3) , Suzanne E. Smrekar (9) , Barbara Tattarletti (4) , Danilo Vicari (4)

1 Dipartimento INFOCOM [Roma]
2 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences [St Louis]
3 Consorzio di Ricerca Sistemi di Telesensori Avanzati
4 Info Solution Spa
5 Thales Alenia Space Italia
6 Smithsonian Institution
7 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra
8 ASI - Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
9 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
10 IG - Institute of Geophysics [Austin]
11 LPG - Laboratoire de Planétologie de Grenoble
12 KU - University of Kansas [Lawrence]
13 IRSPS - International Research School of Planetary Sciences [Pescara]
14 INAF - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica
15 Dipartimento di Fisica

Mars' polar regions are covered with ice-rich layered deposits that potentially contain a record of climate variations. The sounding radar SHARAD on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mapped detailed subsurface stratigraphy in the Promethei Lingula region of the south polar plateau, Planum Australe. Radar reflections interpreted as layers are correlated across adjacent orbits and are continuous for up to 150 kilometers along spacecraft orbital tracks. The reflectors are often separated into discrete reflector sequences, and strong echoes are seen as deep as 1 kilometer. In some cases, the sequences are dipping with respect to each other, suggesting an interdepositional period of erosion. In Australe Sulci, layers are exhumed, indicating recent erosion.

Keywords: HISTORY; CAP; RADAR; SUBSURFACE; TOPOGRAPHY; FEATURES; MISSION

Roberto Seu, Roger Phillips, Giovanni Alberti, Daniela Biccari, Francesco Bonaventura, et al.. Accumulation and erosion of Mars' south polar layered deposits. Science, 2007, 317 (5845), pp.1715-1718. ⟨10.1126/science.1144120⟩. ⟨insu-00359644⟩