Rossman P. Irwin III
2010 Annual Research Report
Rossman P. Irwin worked on an array of research during 2010 that incudes:
1. Noachian Denudation of the Martian Highlands: continued analyses of fluvial erosion at the Holden, Eberswalde, and Gale crater Mars Science Laboratory candidate landing sites, including eroded and deposited volumes, hydrology, duration of activity, and characteristics of associated deposits (PI).
2. Geomorphology of Theater-Headed Valleys: completed field work on Mars analog valleys in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, finding that runoff over layered stratigraphy of different mechanical strength, rather than groundwater sapping, was responsible for forming box canyons (PI).
3. Terrestrial Paleoshorelines: continued field work on pluvial shorelines in the Basin and Range of central Oregon, showing that many lake shore landforms are topographically subtle features that would be difficult to preserve on Mars (James Zimbelman, PI).
4. Inverted Paleochannels: field work on inverted channels in the Atacama Desert, where wind was responsible for deflation of inter-channel fines (Rebecca Williams, PI)
5. Fluvial Landforms on Titan: contributed text to an overview paper on Titan’s valley networks and surveyed available imaging for highly sinuous valleys, a precursor to hydrologic calculations (Devon Burr, PI).
6. Global Geologic Map of Mars: Submitted draft line work and unit identifications for part of the Martian Highlands for compilation into a new global geologic map (Kenneth Tanaka, PI).
Papers:
Irwin, R. P., III, and T. R. Watters (2010), Geology of the Martian crustal dichotomy boundary: Age, modifications, and implications for modeling efforts, J. Geophys. Res., 115, E11006, doi:10.1029/2010JE003658.
Abstracts:
Irwin, R. P., F. Pendrill, T. A. Maxwell, A. D. Howard, and R. A. Craddock (2010), Wind-eroded floor deposits in Noachian degraded craters on Mars, First Int. Conf. on Mars Sedimentology and Stratigraphy, El Paso, TX, abstract 6028, talk.
Irwin, R. P., R. A. Craddock, A. D. Howard, and H. L. Flemming (2010), Topographic controls on Martian valley networks: Implications for climate change during the Noachian Period, 41st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston, Texas, abstract 2436, talk.
