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Polar Spiral Troughs, Mars

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Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

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Definition

Curvilinear troughs or depressions arranged along spiral trends on the northern and southern polar cap of Mars, perpendicular to large chasmata.

Synonyms

Accublation trough; Scarp/trough complex

Description

The polar caps and polar layered deposits of Mars at both hemispheres display pinwheel-shaped dark spiral troughs in helical arrangement (Fig. 1). Troughs in the north have a clear clockwise spiraling pattern; they extend and spiral from the highest region of the cap, located near the rotational pole. They have asymmetric cross-sectional profiles with steeper equatorward-facing slopes (Pathare and Paige 2005) (high sides) (Smith et al. 2013). Polar spiral trough systems in the south are parallel sets of curvilinear grooves perpendicular to the larger curvilinear canyons, trending down canyon, e.g., Australe Sulci (Kolb and Tanaka 2006). Large spirals have an opposite sense in opposite hemispheres (e.g., Smith et al. 2013).

Fig. 1
figure 1

The residual polar ice caps, showing the...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Konkoly Thege Miklos Astronomical Institute, Research Center for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Ákos Kereszturi

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

    Henrik Hargitai

Authors
  1. Ákos Kereszturi
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  2. Henrik Hargitai
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Correspondence to Ákos Kereszturi .

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Kereszturi, Á., Hargitai, H. (2014). Polar Spiral Troughs, Mars. In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_279-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_279-1

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