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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Astron. Space Sci.
Sec. Planetary Science
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspas.2025.1513711

Insights from Multi-Process Fan Deposits in Martian Intracrater Basins on post-Noachian Climate Change

Provisionally accepted
Rebecca Williams Rebecca Williams *
  • Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Alluvial fans are a sensitive record of environmental transitions. Prior studies have determined that martian fans are primarily located in impact crater basins and that fan deposition occurred principally between 3.7 to 3.3 Ga or later, corresponding to the presumed critical climatechanging period. This paper illustrates previously unrecognized flow types and superposition relationships in fan deposits that show a time sequence of varying processes. Examples include debris flows following earlier eroded fluvial deposits (ridges interpreted as inverted channels), an intriguing pitted deposit interpreted to be a highly viscous mudflow with air bubble release, and landforms recording the role of late-stage fluvio-glacial processes. The diversity of fan forms highlight the complex and variable conditions on post-Noachian Mars. This evidence supports fluctuating 'warm, wet' and 'cold, dry' periods, suggesting that the climate transition was variable and slowly degraded, rather than a swift monotonic decline.

    Keywords: Alluvial Fans, debris flows, inverted channels, Mars morphology, unconformity, Surface processes

    Received: 18 Oct 2024; Accepted: 28 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Williams. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Rebecca Williams, Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona, United States

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