Planetary Geology Lecture Outline - Mars

Some major features:

• cratered, older highlands vs. younger lowlands.
• Tharsis bulge with large volcanic constructs.
• Coprates trough.
• polar ice caps.

Processes that have shaped the surface:

• cratering.
• water running in channels, including catastrophic flooding.
• lake/sea and shoreline processes.
• eolian processes.
• glacial processes.
• volcanism.
• mass wasting.
• subterranean withdrawal and collapse (thermokarst, permafrost like).

Why are the volcanoes on Mars so large, especially relative to host-planet size?

What processes differentiated the crust on Mars?

What is odd about the Coprates trough structure if it is a tectonic rift (i.e. does it look like other tectonic rifts on other planetary bodies, and if not , why)?

How did Mons Olympus's peripheral scarp form?

There is an abundance of features suggesting water was common on Mars at some time in the past - where did the water go?

Did Mars have life on it, and does Mars have life on it.

Could Mars be terraformed?

Just a few images of Mars, taken from http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo-gallery/.

Next time: Jovian satellites.

Discussion question for next time: Compare the relative tectonic activity on Jupiter's moons and discuss why some are more active than others.

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