Memnonia Quadrangle - Dark Slope Streaks

Dark Slope Streaks

Many places on Mars show dark slope streaks on steep slopes like crater walls. It seems that the youngest streaks are dark; they become lighter with age. Often they begin as a small narrow spot then widen and extend downhill for hundreds of meters. Several ideas have been advanced to explain the streaks. Some involve water. or even the growth of organisms. The streaks appear in areas covered with dust. Much of the Martian surface is covered with dust. Fine dust settles out of the atmosphere covering everything. We know a lot about this dust because the solar panels of Mars Rovers get covered with dust. The power of the Rovers has been saved many times by the wind, in the form of dust devils, that have cleared the panels and boosted the power. From these observations with the Rovers, we know that the process of dust coming out of the atmosphere then returning happens over and over.

It is most generally accepted that the streaks represent avalanches of dust. The streaks appear in areas covered with dust. When a thin layer of dust is removed, the underlying surface is dark. Much of the Martian surface is covered with dust. Dust storms are frequent, especially when the spring season begins in the southern hemisphere. At that time, Mars is 40% closer to the sun. The orbit of Mars is much more elliptical then the Earth's. That is the difference between the farthest point from the sun and the closest point to the sun is very great for Mars, but only slight for the Earth. Also, every few years, the entire planet is engulfed in a global dust storm. When NASA's Mariner 9 craft arrived there, nothing could be seen through the dust storm. Other global dust storms have also been observed, since that time. Dark streaks can be seen in the image below taken with HiRISE of the central mound in Nicholson Crater. At least one streak in the image splits into two when encountering an obstacle.

Research, published in January 2012 in Icarus, found that dark streaks were initiated by airblasts from meteorites traveling at supersonic speeds. The team of scientists was led by Kaylan Burleigh, an undergraduate at the University of Arizona. After counting some 65,000 dark streaks around the impact site of a group of 5 new craters, patterns emerged. The number of streaks was greatest closer to the impact site. So, the impact somehow probably caused the streaks. Also, the distribution of the streaks formed a pattern with two wings extending from the impact site. The curved wings resembled scimitars, curved knives. This pattern suggests that an interaction of airblasts from the group of meteorites shook dust loose enough to start dust avalanches that formed the many dark streaks. At first it was thought that the shaking of the ground from the impact caused the dust avalanches, but if that was the case the dark streaks would have been arranged symmetrically around the impacts, rather than being concentrated into curved shapes.

• Minio Vallis Hanging Valleys, as seen by HiRISE. Two hanging valleys are visible, as well as many dark slope streaks.

• Tinia Valles, as seen by HiRISE. Full size image shows dark slope streaks.

• Labou Vallis, as seen by HiRISE. Ful size image shows old and new (darker) dark slope streaks.