Fire and Ice on the Red Planet – A photogeologic study of Malea Planum to assess volcano-ice interactions and their potential to provide habitable environments on ancient Mars

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Providing energy and prebiotic reagents, volcano-ice interactions are considered as suitable environments for the emergence of life on Earth, and thus are crucial when assessing the habitability of ancient Mars. As the red planet hosted such interactions combined with liquid water, it presents a unique opportunity to evaluate the serendipity of terrestrial life and the likelihood of having it emerge elsewhere. This and the ongoing debate on how to reconcile evidence for vast amounts of liquid water on ancient Mars with contradicting icy climate models strongly calls for further assessments of the red planet’s early environment, specifically in areas of volcanic activity. I therefore propose a comprehensive photogeologic study of Malea Planum, a ca. 900 x 1200 km large volcanic province on Mars hosting landforms that imply volcano-ice interactions such as phreatovolcanism 4 billion years ago. The proposed project is novel as Malea Planum has not yet been subject to systematic investigations or detailed mapping and thus, has great potential to yield significant insights into the red planet’s early environment. The project will make use of the unique assets at Arizona State University, which provides all required soft-/hardware and hosts an unparalleled group of researchers with expertise perfectly aligned with this interdisciplinary project. Multiple working hypotheses to investigate the roles of various processes forming Malea Planum will be used and well-established concepts of photogeologic analyses of planetary surfaces will be employed: 1) Processing of remote sensing data from various Mars orbiter probes; 2) Creation of a Geographic Information System (GIS) project, in which the area is mapped in great detail and units are dated; 3) Development of a comprehensive chronostratigraphic model, showing the region’s geologic history; 4) Quantitative/qualitative analyses of landforms implying volcano-ice interactions and terrestrial analog research. Two peer-reviewed publications within a project time of two years are planned, the first including a professional map product (1:2,000,000) and the second being focused on analyses and implications of volcano-ice interactions on Malea Planum. The following science questions are among those to be answered by this study: Did volcano-ice interactions enable life-permitting conditions on early Mars and what are the implications for early Earth? What was the aerial/temporal extent and steam/water output of those interactions on Malea Planum? What is the geologic history of that region and how did it affect surrounding areas, e.g., Hellas Planitia and the South Pole area? What can analog studies tell us about related geologic processes on Earth and other planets?