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NUMERICAL MODELING OF THE DAEDALIA PLANUM LAVA FLOWS, MARS

Beauchamp, Nathan (2018) NUMERICAL MODELING OF THE DAEDALIA PLANUM LAVA FLOWS, MARS. Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Mars has been a target of scientific research for decades as its surface records a varied geologic history including the largest shield volcanoes in the solar system (Rossi and van Gasselt, 2010). The evidence of volcanism, from the shield volcanoes and the lava flows that extend for hundreds of kilometers, garnered the interest of many scientists to determine why the volcanism on the planet is at a scale much larger than on Earth (Zimbelman, 1998). Many previous studies compared terrestrial and Martian flows using empirical relationships to determine values for parameters such as eruption rate and viscosity (Zimbelman, 1998; Hiesinger et al., 2007). These terrestrial based empirical relationships have not been verified as being applicable to planetary flows (Crisp & Baloga, 1990). This study seeks to examine this issue by duplicating the flows using numerical modeling with the FLOWGO thermorheologic model of Harris and Rowland (2001) and comparing the generated eruption rate and viscosity values.
For modeling of this study, the majority of model parameters were based on data taken from the terrestrial Piton de la Fournaise volcano except for values directly measured from the Mars flows such as flow dimensions and path slope. Dimensions of flows were measured from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Context Camera (CTX) images of the study region in Daedalia Planum, Mars. Slope and flow thickness required the use of elevation data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) instrument. Using these parameters, a set of three different models were generated that reproduced the flows in the Daedalia Planum within 10% of their measured length. The results of this study were comparable to the eruption rates and viscosity values of previous studies. This study has shown that Martian lava flows can be modeled using terrestrial flow parameter values with results comparable to prior solely empirical studies.


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Details

Item Type: University of Pittsburgh ETD
Status: Unpublished
Creators/Authors:
CreatorsEmailPitt UsernameORCID
Beauchamp, Nathanndb46@pitt.edundb46
ETD Committee:
TitleMemberEmail AddressPitt UsernameORCID
Committee MemberHarbert, Williamharbert@pitt.eduharbert
Committee MemberShelf, Eitanshelef@pitt.edushelef
Committee ChairRamsey, Michaelmramsey@pitt.edumramsey
Date: 29 January 2018
Date Type: Publication
Defense Date: 28 November 2017
Approval Date: 29 January 2018
Submission Date: 8 December 2017
Access Restriction: No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately.
Number of Pages: 103
Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Schools and Programs: Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Geology and Planetary Science
Degree: MS - Master of Science
Thesis Type: Master's Thesis
Refereed: Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords: planetary geology
Date Deposited: 29 Jan 2018 18:43
Last Modified: 29 Jan 2018 18:43
URI: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/33602

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