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Ablation Hollow

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

Definition

A closed depression inferred to be carved by melting or sublimation of ice from an ice-bearing unit.

Category

A type of sublimation landform.

Synonyms

Ablation polygon; Cottage cheese terrain (Mars); Individual pits; Suncup; Terrain

Description

Closely spaced depressions with similar shapes, in the residual polar cap of Mars producing a gentle hummocky pitted surface (Fisher et al. 2002). This terrain displays a rough topography of pits, cracks, and some knobs (Thomas et al. 2000). Pits joined in roughly linear strings or depressions with preferential direction form lineations (Fisher et al. 2002).

Morphometry

From millimeter to tens of kilometers in width, from millimeter to hundreds of meters in depth. Pits studied by Fisher et al. (2002) in the northern ice cap of Mars are tens of meters wide and 1–2 m deep (Fisher et al. 2002).

Subtypes

  1. (1)

    Ablation hollows (pitted terrain) on snow/frost/ice covered terrain.

    1. (1.1)

      “Cottage cheese terrain” resembling cottage cheese at MOC...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique de Nantes, Université de Nantes/CNRS UMR6112, Nantes, France

    Nicolas Mangold

  2. Planetary Science Research Group, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

    Henrik Hargitai

Authors
  1. Nicolas Mangold
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  2. Henrik Hargitai
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicolas Mangold .

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Mangold, N., Hargitai, H. (2014). Ablation Hollow. In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_1-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_1-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9213-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

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