2020 Virtual undergraduate Research symposium

Extraterrestrial Fluvial Fans


PROJECT NUMBER: 58

AUTHOR: Jack Henry, Geology and Geological Engineering

MENTOR: Piret Plink-Bjorklund, Geology and Geological Engineering | MENTOR: Mark Hansford, Geology and Geological Engineering

 

ABSTRACT

On Earth’s surface, patterns left by fluvial movement often are indicators of paleoclimates or impactful events giving clues of a rich geomorphological history. As a familiar environment for water, tracking and characterizing fluvial movements and patterns left on Earth, and by extension other planets, is key to understanding the body’s geologic history. The analysis and differentiation between deltas and fluvial fans is important to understanding how these features formed when the contextual evidence of paleobodies of water are removed. Differentiation between deltas and fluvial fans is important because deltas deposit into a standing body of water while fluvial fans deposit sediments on land.

In this project, we carefully mapped and measured Earth based fluvial fans and deltas to compare to potential extraterrestrial fluvial systems. This analysis yielded high resolution outlines that tracked the flow of active or previously flowing water within the channels. Weighted rankings were made of each channel (based on width) along with a binary color choice indicating a wet or dry channel. Fluvial fans and deltas are built by fundamentally different processes: fluvial fans are built by channel avulsions and river-dominated deltas are built by bifurcations (North and Warwick, 2007). Avulsions and bifurcations should create different geometries which can be measured to distinguish between them. We will measure the different geometries, using imageJ and the methods outlined by Coffey and Shaw (2017), to create a database to compare and differentiate fluvial fans and deltas on Earth. We will then measure sedimentary bodies on extraterrestrial surfaces, such as Mars and Saturn’s moon Titan, and compare the recorded angles against our Earth based database to determine whether the sedimentary bodies are fluvial fans or deltas. This will provide valuable information about the deposition processes controlling the sedimentary body and ultimately whether there were standing bodies of water on the extraterrestrial surfaces at the time of deposition.

 

VISUAL PRESENTATION

 

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Jack Henry is a sophomore geological engineering major with an area of interest in mineral resource exploration. He currently works as a research assistant in the geology and geological engineering department alongside Dr. Mark Hansford and Dr. Piret Plink-Bjorklund. Throughout the past few semesters, Jack has researched the deposition and fluvial movement of terrestrial fluvial and deltaic fans with the purpose of comparing this data to the extraterrestrial environments of Mars and possibly Saturn’s moon, Titan. In the future, Jack hopes to apply this research to a team paper furthering evidence of extraterrestrial paleo shorelines.

 


1 Comment

  1. I enjoyed reading about this project, and then listening to the video presentation. I found it fun to learn about.

    I also found myself impressed with the command of the material displayed by the presenter. It is clear that the presenter has invested several semesters in this work, for which I commend him.

    I would advise a re-ordering of the presentation. It ended on Mars. It would be better to start on Mars and the search for life on other planets. Far out! A reader can’t help but be hooked after hearing that, just as I was after reading the title.

    Good luck going forward.

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