What different landscapes exist on Mars and how do you tell the age of them?
Mars is like one giant arctic desert: barren, but extremely cold. Most of its surface is littered with impact craters which is how we can determine relative age on Mars. On Earth, we can see rock layers in carved out canyons or by digging into the ground. Generally, the layers on top are younger than the ones below. We can also perform more advanced dating techniques on Earth, such as radiometric dating. We can't do these things on Mars because we don't have physical samples and we haven't really dug below the surface...yet. We do know that impact craters would be younger than the rock that it impacted. We also know that because space junk has mostly stopped bombarding the planet and hit us with the larger ones first, areas with more craters and larger craters are usually older than areas with less and smaller craters. Finally, we can look at the erosion and deformation of the crater and its rim from space as well. We can use these relative ages to understand how old some of the other surfaces we see are. Other landscapes on Mars include large volcanic fields, massive dunes, networks of channels, glaciers, and two polar ice caps.
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I've had a lot of interactions recently where I am talking with people about the upcoming holidays and at some point I briefly mention how I will be in Antarctica for Christmas. At this point in my preparation process, I breeze through this tidbit as anyone would sharing their plans to see family. Of course, spending Christmas in Antarctica is not a normal thing and the conversation usually comes to a screeching halt to the tune of, "wait what? Antarctica?" So I'm going to Antarctica and here is the story.
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About this blogEverything science, from lab work to field work and anything else important to me in the science community.
Science meI am currently a PhD student in the Planetary Exploration Lab at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ. I received my Bs in Geology from St. Lawrence University and am interested in surface processes on Mars. My current research involves scaling the efficiency of image interpretation of geologic features in Antarctica. Archives |