Edwin S. Kite, Kevin W. Lewis
Gale crater, the landing site of the Curiosity Mars rover, hosts a 5 kilometer high layered mound of uncertain origin which may represent an important archive of the planet's past climate. Although widely considered to be an erosional remnant of a once crater-filling unit, we combine structural measurements and a new model of formation to show how this mound may have grown in place near the center of the crater under the influence of topographic slope-induced winds. This mechanism implicates airfall-dominated deposition with a limited role for lacustrine or fluvial activity in the formation of the Gale mound, and is not favorable for the preservation of organic carbon. Slope-wind enhanced erosion and transport is widely applicable to a range of similar sedimentary mounds found across the Martian surface.
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http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.6840
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