Geologic/geomorphologic map of the Chryse Planitia region of Mars

Since the 1970's, when the Mariner 9 spacecraft revealed the geologic diversity of Mars, the Chryse Planitia region has been noted for its immense outflow channels and chaotic terrain (McCauley and others, 1972; Sharp and Malin, 1975; Baker, 1982, chap. 3; Mars Channel Working Group, 1983). Various proposals for the origin of these features have been offered; most workers have favored a mechanism in which ground water or water-rich debris was expelled from beneath a frozen crust, leading to catastrophic debris flows or floods that may have contained significant amounts of ice (Baker and Milton, 1974; Carr, 1979; Nummedal and Prior, 1981; Lucchitta, 1982; MacKinnon and Tanaka, 1989). The channels originated on or near the flanks of [...]