New Martian valley network volume estimate consistent with ancient ocean and warm and wet climate

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 8; no. 1; p. 15766
• Main Authors: Luo, Wei, Cang, Xuezhi, Howard, Alan D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 05.06.2017; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 704/445/215; 704/445/242; 704/445/845; Estimates; Gamma rays; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hypotheses; Mars; multidisciplinary; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sediments; Soil erosion; United States > US
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15766

The volume of Martian valley network (VN) cavity and the amount of water needed to create the cavity by erosion are of significant importance for understanding the early Martian climate, the style and rate of hydrologic cycling, and the possibility of an ancient ocean. However, previous attempts at estimating these two quantities were based on selected valleys or at local sites using crude estimates of VN length, width and depth. Here we employed an innovative progressive black top hat transformation method to estimate them on a global scale based on the depth of each valley pixel. The conservative estimate of the minimum global VN volume is 1.74 × 10 14  m 3 and minimum cumulative volume of water required is 6.86 × 10 17  m 3 (or ∼5 km of global equivalent layer, GEL). Both are much larger than previous estimates and are consistent with an early warm and wet climate with active hydrologic cycling involving an ocean. To understand the early Martian climate, the volume of the global Martian valley network is required. Here, the authors use a black top hat transformation method and find that the minimum global valley network volume is 1.74 × 1,014 m 3 with a minimum cumulative volume of water required of 6.86 × 1,017 m 3 .