Abstract
Eight new topographic profiles across the Martian volcano Tyrrhena Patera have been obtained between latitudes 20.0° and 25.1°S from radar data collected by the JPL Goldstone Radar System in 1988. These profiles, which have a reproducible accuracy of better than 150 m, show the volcano to rise ∼1.5 km above the plains of Hesperia Planum to the east, and to have an average height-to-diameter ratio of ∼1:340. The maximum slopes of the flanks appear to be ∼3.0°. The slopes on the northern flanks of Tyrrhena Patera (0.2 to 3.0°) bear little correlation with the width (1.7 to 5.2 km) or depth (∼200 to 300 m) of valley systems found in that area. This suggests that erosion by gravity-driven flows was not responsible for valley formation and that other factors, such as spatial or temporal variations in the volume of ground water released by sapping, or strength differences in the materials comprising the surface units of the volcano, controlled the geometry and locations of the valleys.
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