A History of Fire and Ice on Mars: Using Remote Sensing to Examine the Chemical Origins of Volcanism, Liquid Water, and Regolith-Ice on Mars

• Main Author: Bates, Augustus
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: LSU Scholarly Repository 2024
• Subjects: planetary science; remote sensing; Mars; seismic velocity modeling; chemical analysis of martian soils; volcanism; Geology; Geophysics and Seismology; Physical Processes; Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/6363; https://repository.lsu.edu/context/gradschool_dissertations/article/7482/viewcontent/Dissertation_draft_1.0.2.pdf

The continued study of our solar system has led to an advent of new industries and technologies. Mars in particular, is of great interest as it is one of our closest stellar neighbors and bears remarkable similarity to a ‘proto-Earth.’ Detailed studies of the red planet involve a combination of techniques, ranging from satellite remote sensing to in-situ observations from rovers. The difference in scale between these two modes of investigation creates a disparity in scientific literature, where regional to global observations at times conflict with local observations. Thus, optimizing our remote sensing techniques and advancing our understanding of them is of great importance. The chapters of this work use a variety of data from remote sensing sources, ranging from geochemical to geophysical, in an effort to explain the complex geologic history of Mars. In chapter 1, geochemical data derived from Gamma-ray spectroscopy in combination with geophysical data derived from admittance modeling are used to uncover the unique provenance of the Arabia Terra region on Mars. This region may have been host to the only instance of supervolcanism on Mars, which may have occurred almost 4 billion years ago. In chapter 2, soil chemistry trends are examined within the northern lowlands in an effort to uncover the extent of aqueous alteration in the region. In contrast to other theories which posit the lowlands of Mars were home to an ocean, we find no geochemical evidence to suggest the presence of an ocean-scale body of water within the lowlands. In chapter 3, we examine seismic velocity estimation through the use of numerical models designed to estimate p-wave velocity in unconsolidated sediments. These models have been used terrestrially for studies in different settings, from beach sands to permafrost environments, both of which are broadly applicable to Mars. We compare our model outputs with the velocities derived by the InSight team through analysis of in-situ seismic data from Mars and find that we are able to ...