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Lacustrine Features (Mars)

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

Definition

Sites of putative long-standing bodies of water on Mars.

Synonyms

Lacustrine plains; Paleolake basin

Description

Flat regions in commonly breached closed or open depressions or topographic lows.

Morphometry

Open-basin lake area ranges between ∼2 and ∼500,000 km2 (Fassett and Head 2008).

Subtypes

Subtypes of lacustrine features in relation to associated observable valley(s):

  1. (1)

    Open-basin lake (Cabrol and Grin 1999): possible lake where outlet is observed. Water must have ponded to the “level of the surface adjacent to the outlet valley head before breaching and overflowing the basin, requiring a period of sustained fluvial activity on the surface of Mars” (Fassett and Head 2008; Goudge et al. 2012).

    1. (1.1)

      A basin where both inlet and outlet valley are observed, i.e., located along a drainage course, is described as intra-valley basin (De Hon 1992; Fig. 1).

    2. (1.2)

      A basin at the head of a valley is a valley-head basin (De Hon 1992).

    ...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Konkoly Thege Miklos Astronomical Institute, Research Center for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Ákos Kereszturi

  2. Department of Geography, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA

    Rene De Hon

Authors
  1. Ákos Kereszturi
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  2. Rene De Hon
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Correspondence to Ákos Kereszturi .

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Kereszturi, Á., De Hon, R. (2014). Lacustrine Features (Mars). In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_212-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_212-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9213-9

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