THE ARGENTINEAN PUNA AS AN AEOLIAN MARS ANALOG: SUMMARY OF RECENT RESULTS AND FUTURE PLANS

ZIMBELMAN, J.R.; BRIDGES, N.T.; SPAGNUOLO, M.G.; DE SILVA, S.L.

Workshop; Fifth Intl Planetary Dunes Workshop; 2017

Lunar and Planetary Institute

Wind transport of particles is a fundamental geologicalprocess on solid bodies with atmospheres. On Mars, whichcurrently lacks competing water-based physical andchemical weathering agents, aeolian processes play adominant role in forming and modifying the landscape (e.g.,1). Such dry conditions have, by and large, existed forbillions of years on the planet, such that major portions ofthe Martian stratigraphic record are reflective of conditionsthat are more akin to deserts and high altitude terrains onEarth. Many features are familiar to us on Earth, such asdunes, impact ripples, and yardangs. However, othercommon Martian features such as dune megaripples [2],Transverse Aeolian Ridges (TARs; 3-8), and periodicbedrock ridges [9, 10] remain enigmatic because of arelative lack of appropriate terrestrial analogs. Decipheringthe origin and evolution of these features is important if weare to fully understand the way the wind affects the Martianlandscape.Gravel megaripples and yardang fields in Catamarcaprovince, Argentina [11-14], at an elevation of ~4500 m, arelocated in one of the windiest parts of the Argentinean Punaand have been used as an analog to study Martian TARSand yardangs by these authors [12,14-16] and otherinvestigators [8,10,11,13] (Figure 1). The region has alsobeen used to investigate dust devils under the relatively lowatmospheric pressures [17]. Here we summarize ourpublished work [14-16], how it fits into other investigations,and discuss plans for future studies that we hope to pursue.