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The Hunt for Martian Water: Gullies and Pedestals

The Hunt for Martian Water:
Gullies and Pedestals

By:
Daniel C. Nunes
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Click for Live Broadcast


When: Friday, October 29, 2010, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Join us for coffee beginning at 10:00 a.m.
Where: Seminar Conference Room, 10100 Burnet Road, Bldg 196-ROC, Austin, Texas 78758
Host: Jack Holt, UTIG
image from Daniel's talk

Abstract
"Follow the water," the mantra of NASA's Mars Exploration Program for over a decade, is now culminating with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission. The budget, distribution, and history of water is relevant to the geologic, climatic, and putatively biologic histories of that planet. The Shallow Radar (SHARAD) is one of the instruments aboard MRO playing a key role in detecting Martian water deposits. Gullies, found on steep slopes primarily at the mid-latitudes, are hypothesized to be formed through the erosive action of liquid water from shallow aquifers. Pedestal craters also concentrate at the mid-latitudes and are thought to have formed on terrain with a water-rich substrate. Here I will review the results from our SHARAD survey of these features.