Martian slope streaks as plausible indicators of transient water activity

Slope streaks have been frequently observed in the equatorial, low thermal inertia and dusty regions of Mars. The reason behind their formation remains unclear with proposed hypotheses for both dry and wet mechanisms. Here, we report an up-to-date distribution and morphometric investigation of Marti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2017-08, Vol.7 (1), p.7074-7074, Article 7074
Main Authors: Bhardwaj, Anshuman, Sam, Lydia, Martín-Torres, F. Javier, Zorzano, María-Paz, Fonseca, Ricardo M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/33/445/210
639/33/445/215
Atmosfärsvetenskap
Atmosphere
Atmospheric science
Atmospheric water
Chlorine
Coexistence
Flow pattern
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hydrologic cycle
Mars
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Water activity
Water vapor
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Summary:Slope streaks have been frequently observed in the equatorial, low thermal inertia and dusty regions of Mars. The reason behind their formation remains unclear with proposed hypotheses for both dry and wet mechanisms. Here, we report an up-to-date distribution and morphometric investigation of Martian slope streaks. We find: (i) a remarkable coexistence of the slope streak distribution with the regions on Mars with high abundances of water-equivalent hydrogen, chlorine, and iron; (ii) favourable thermodynamic conditions for transient deliquescence and brine development in the slope streak regions; (iii) a significant concurrence of slope streak distribution with the regions of enhanced atmospheric water vapour concentration, thus suggestive of a present-day regolith-atmosphere water cycle; and (iv) terrain preferences and flow patterns supporting a wet mechanism for slope streaks. These results suggest a strong local regolith-atmosphere water coupling in the slope streak regions that leads to the formation of these fluidised features. Our conclusions can have profound astrobiological, habitability, environmental, and planetary protection implications.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-07453-9