Landslide Mobility, Valles Marineris, Mars

Ongoing PhD Work

I am currently exploring the mobility of landslides in the Valles Marineris , a 4000 km long rift system at Martian equator. I am using Context Camera (CTX) imagery from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and 3D High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) from the Mars Express to create a database of mapped landslides in the Valles Marineris. I am dating the landslide deposits using crater counting to understand mobility changes over time. Better comprehending the mobility of landslides informs the conditions in which they were deposited, and past Martian climate evolution, with implications for the potential of life to develop.

Landslide in the Valles Marineris, outlined in Blue. CTX image, overlain with 3D HRSC imagery (with lower elevation in green and higher in red)