Hadriaca Patera: Insights into its volcanic history from Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera

Abstract

High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) images of Hadriaca Patera, Mars, in combination with Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC), Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), and Thermal Infrared Imaging System (THEMIS) data sets, reveal morphologic details about this volcano and enable determination of a chronology of the major geologic events through new cratering age assessments. New topographic measurements of the Hadriaca edifice were also made from a HRSC‐based high‐resolution (125 m) digital terrain model (DTM) and compared to the MOLA DTM. We find evidence for a complex formation and erosional history at Hadriaca Patera, in which volcanic, fluvial, and aeolian processes were all involved. Crater counts and associated model ages suggest that Hadriaca Patera formed from early shield‐building volcanic (likely explosive pyroclastic) eruptions at ∼3.7–3.9 Ga, with caldera formation no later than ∼3.5 Ga. A variety of geologic activity occurred in the caldera and on the northern flank and plains at ∼3.3–3.5 Ga, likely including pyroclastic flows (that partially filled a large crater NW of the caldera, and plains to the NE) and differential erosion/deposition by aeolian and/or fluvial activity. There were some resurfacing event(s) in the caldera and on the eastern flank at ∼2.4–2.6 Ga, in which the eastern flank's morphology is indicative of fluvial erosion. The most recent dateable geologic activity on Hadriaca Patera includes caldera resurfacing by some process (most likely differential aeolian erosion/deposition) in the Amazonian Period, as recent as ∼1.5 Ga. This is coincident with the resurfacing of the heavily channeled south flank by fluvial erosion. Unlike the Tharsis shields, major geologic activity ended at Hadriaca Patera over a billion years ago.