The influence of slope morphology on gullies: Terrestrial gullies in Lake George as analogues for Mars

Abstract

Terrestrial gullies provide a useful benchmark to compare martian gully forms against. We compare pole and equator facing gullies in an unnamed crater located in the martian southern mid-latitudes with gullies located on the Lake George escarpment south of Gearys Gap, New South Wales, Australia. Our investigations showed gully morphology at both sites is greatly influenced by thickness of readily erodable regolith, local slope and the presence or absence of bedrock exposures in the gullies. We found that the martian pole-facing gullies are the most similar to those of Lake George and both systems are therefore likely to have been eroded by liquid water. Although the martian gullies possessed much greater volumes of eroded sediment, they had not eroded to underlying bedrock. This contrasts with the smaller Lake George gully channels where numerous bedrock exposures, observed during our survey, affected their slope and overall morphology. Similarly, although dominated by dry processes, multiple bedrock exposures are present within the equator facing martian gullies affecting their cross sectional area and hence sediment transport. The studied sites all showed significant influence from initial slope angles, indicating that interpretation of gully forms such as slopes below the angle of repose, curved profiles and sinuosity must be placed in context of local environments. This analysis can be applied to other regions of Mars and Earth and provide a greater understanding of how geomorphologic processes operate on both worlds.