Seasonal flows on warm Martian slopes

Reprojected view of warm-season flows in Newton Crater

Seasonal flows on warm Martian slopes (also called recurring slope lineae, recurrent slope lineae and RSL)[1][2] are thought to be salty water flows occurring during the warmest months on Mars, or alternatively, dry grains that "flow" downslope of at least 27 degrees.

The flows are narrow (0.5 to 5 meters) and exhibit relatively dark markings on steep (25° to 40°) slopes, appear and incrementally grow during warm seasons and fade in cold seasons. Liquid brines near the surface have been proposed to explain this activity,[3] or interactions between sulfates and chlorine salts that interact under to produce landslides.[4]

  1. ^ Kirby, Runyon; Ojha, Lujendra (August 18, 2014). "Recurring Slope Lineae". Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. p. 1. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_352-1. ISBN 978-1-4614-9213-9.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT-20151005-kc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Ojha, Lujendra; Wilhelm, Mary Beth; Murchie, Scott L.; McEwen, Alfred S.; et al. (28 September 2015). "Spectral evidence for hydrated salts in recurring slope lineae on Mars". Nature Geoscience. 8 (11): 829. Bibcode:2015NatGe...8..829O. doi:10.1038/ngeo2546. S2CID 59152931.
  4. ^ Bishop, J. L.; Yeşilbaş, M.; Hinman, N. W.; Burton, Z. F. M.; Englert, P. A. J.; Toner, J. D.; McEwen, A. S.; Gulick, V. C.; Gibson, E. K.; Koeberl, C. (2021). "Martian subsurface cryosalt expansion and collapse as trigger for landslides". Science Advances. 7 (6): eabe4459. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abe4459. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 7857681. PMID 33536216.