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Hemispheric Dichotomy (Mars)

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Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

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Definition

A global, hemispheric asymmetry on Mars, representing a physiographic divide between the rough highlands in the south and relatively smooth lowlands in the north.

Synonyms

Crustal dichotomy

Description

The hemispheric dichotomy on Mars is the largest-scale and most prominent landform on the surface of Mars. The dichotomy is oriented nearly north–south and represents a broad division of the surface into the smooth lowland northern plains and the heavily cratered southern highlands (Morgan et al. 2009). The highlands are situated at a topographic level several km higher than the lowlands: the difference is between 2.5 and 6 km (Fig. 1), with regional changes in elevation of up to 4 km (Smith et al. 1999). The dichotomy boundary is a near-global escarpment with the notable exceptions of Arabia Terra and Tharsis.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Topography of Mars from MOLA gridded data (MGS MOLA Global Colorized Hillshade)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA

    James H. Roberts

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  1. James H. Roberts
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Correspondence to James H. Roberts .

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Roberts, J.H. (2014). Hemispheric Dichotomy (Mars). In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_649-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_649-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9213-9

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