ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Astron. Space Sci.
Sec. Planetary Science
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspas.2025.1666811
This article is part of the Research TopicHabitability Across the Solar System and ExoplanetsView all articles
Parallels Between Subaqueous Ridges on Earth and Mars: A New Morphological Potential Indicator For Paleolake Assessment
Provisionally accepted
- 1Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, United States
- 2Smithsonian Institution, Washington, United States
- 3Arizona State University, Tempe, United States
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Water levels in large lakes fluctuate in response to climatic cycles. Surface observations from rovers have validated past lakes on Mars, following multiple studies that inventoried candidate paleolake sites across the planet. Attempts to identify martian paleolake highstands, a key metric for constructing lake hydrographs, are hampered by few morphological indicators of water level discernible in orbital data. Construction of paleolake hydrographs, particularly in post-Noachian sites with preserved sedimentary deposits, holds tremendous promise for elucidating climate evolution on Mars. Drawing upon a terrestrial analog, we demonstrate that some depositional ridges on Mars may have formed subaqueously in lakes. This new insight paves the way for future studies to use this landform in detailed lake hydrograph reconstructions.
Keywords: Mars morphology1, lakes2, valley networks3, inverted channels4, surface processes5
Received: 15 Jul 2025; Accepted: 22 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Williams, Irwin, Berman and Hill. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rebecca M. E. Williams, williams@psi.edu
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