Lava Flows in the Tharsis Region of Mars: Estimates of Flow Speeds and Volume Fluxes
نویسندگان
چکیده
The goal of this study was to characterize the eruptive behavior of Olympus Mons, Mars, by estimating flow speeds and volume fluxes for lava flows produced from various vents on the volcano. During my fellowship, I have made width, depth and ground slope measurements of 65 lava tubes and 271 channels from 56 MOC images and 65 THEMIS images of Olympus Mons. The data show that channels are more numerous than tubes, but this may be due to the fact that tubes cannot be detected until they collapse and are therefore likely under represented due to sampling biases. We observe that tubes are prevalent near the summit while channels are dominantly seen on the middle and lower flanks as well as on the basal scarp. Channels are found on a variety of slopes from 0 to 29°, while tubes are found on slopes less than 10°. This is consistent with the terrestrial experience that tube roofs form less readily on steep slopes.
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