Definition
The main occurrence of landslide deposits on Mars are found within the Valles Marineris canyon system, where about 50 prominent landslides have been identified that originated from the canyon walls leaving behind curved scars cut into the canyon rim. The ages of landslide deposits in the Valles Marineris canyon system range from 3.5 Ga to as little as 50 Ma, implying that the triggering mechanism is ongoing and that the process of mass wasting is based on a nonchanging flow rheology (Quantin et al. 2004a).
If the mass wasting processes at Valles Marineris were supported by gas, fluids, or a basal lubrication remains debated. The geometric relation between run-out distance and landslide volume suggest predominantly dry mass wasting conditions (Soukhovitskaya and Manga 2006), while the geometric relation between run-out distance and vertical drop imply a high mobility of the landslides and therefore indicate a fluidization process facilitated by the presence of a gas or a...
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References and Further Reading
De Blasio FB (2011a) Landslides in Valles Marineris (Mars): a possible role of basal lubrication by sub-surface ice. Planet Space Sci 59:1384–1392
De Blasio FB (2011b) The aureole of Olympus Mons (Mars) as the compound deposit of submarine landslides. Earth Planet Sci Lett 312:126–139
Harrison KP, Grimm RE (2003) Rheological constraints on martian landslides. Icarus 163:347–362
Quantin C, Allemand P, Mangold N, Delacourt C (2004a) Ages of Valles Marineris (Mars) landslides and implications for canyon history. Icarus 172:555–572
Quantin C, Allemand P, Delacourt C (2004b) Morphology and geometry of Valles Marineris landslides. Planet Space Sci 52:1011–1022
Soukhovitskaya V, Manga M (2006) Martian landslides in Valles Marineris: wet or dry? Icarus 180:348–352
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Airo, A. (2014). Landslide (Mars). In: Amils, R., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_2473-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_2473-2
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