V
voyagerwsh
Guest
Two dominant models to explain the likely cause of martian gullies have been proposed, i.e. ground water or snow pack. <br /><br />One model (1) was proposed by Michael Malin et al. as ground water or aquifer repeatedly outburst with water/ice and debris as called ice dam break running down slope which would carve the soil and form gullies.<br /><br />In Phil Christensen's snow pack model (2), Dr. Christensen explains the gullies was formed by melting snow pack which was accumulated durind 50,000 to 500,000 years of time span.<br /><br />Interestingly, can ground water explain origin of the gully in 3,700 meters elevation on Ausonia Mensa? Or Snow pack model is gaining upper hand to the proposed martian gullies formation. I would favor snow pack model which may have better explaination on this gully formation in that groundwater or aquifer would probablely not dwell on the 3.7 km elevation.<br /><br />(1). http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/news/mars_water_pr_20000622.html<br /><br />(2). http://www.geotimes.org/mar03/WebExtra031403.html<br /><br /> <br />