The Obliquity of Mars (Periodic Bedding in Tithonium Chasma)
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
The Obliquity of Mars (Periodic Bedding in Tithonium Chasma)
ESP_034132_1750  Science Theme: Geologic Contacts/Stratigraphy
Earth’s seasons are caused by the tilt of our planet’s rotational axis to the orbital plane or obliquity. Mars’ obliquity is currently about 25 degrees, which is not much different from Earth's 23 degrees. However, numerical calculations by scientists at the Paris Observatory and Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggest that this near-agreement is a coincidence.

Under the influence of gravitational torques from other planets, Mars’ obliquity varies chaotically, probably reaching values greater than 60 degrees and lower than 10 degrees. By contrast, Earth’s obliquity appears to have been limited to small variations from its current value because of the stabilizing gravitational influence of the Moon. If the calculations are correct, then for most of the Solar System’s history, the obliquity of Mars was greater than 25 degrees. This would produce warmer summers and colder winters than on present-day Mars. On Earth, a recent 1 degree rise in obliquity is believed to have triggered ice sheet retreat from the current location of New York City to Greenland. The climatic consequences of 50 degree changes in obliquity on Mars remain unknown.

It is possible, though unproven, that higher obliquity triggered partial melting of some of Mars’ water ice. Our best chance at understanding this is to find piles of ice, dust, silt or sand that accumulated over many cycles of obliquity change. Chemical, mineralogical and isotopic variations within those piles could then offer clues to about past climate changes. On Mars, sediment layers of near-uniform thickness visible from orbit are a fingerprint of deposits that record many cycles of obliquity change.

This HiRISE image of an east-facing slope in Tithonium Chasma was taken to follow up an earlier Context Camera image that seemed to show sediment layers of near-uniform thickness. These sediment layers are the dark and light stripes that run diagonally across the center of the observation. In this top-down view, afternoon sunlight picks out subtle east-west trending ridges in the east-facing slope. The dark and light stripes appear to deflect to the east (downslope) across the ridges. To a geologist, this outcrop pattern shows that the dip of the ancient sediment layers is gentler than the slope of the modern hillside. Further analysis of the image may determine whether these layers do record ancient obliquity-driven climate change on Mars.

Written by: Edwin Kite (narration: Tre Gibbs)  (9 January 2014)

This is a stereo pair with ESP_034554_1750.
 
Acquisition date
07 November 2013

Local Mars time
14:54

Latitude (centered)
-4.828°

Longitude (East)
270.995°

Spacecraft altitude
263.6 km (163.8 miles)

Original image scale range
26.3 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~79 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

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Equirectangular

Emission angle
2.5°

Phase angle
50.7°

Solar incidence angle
49°, with the Sun about 41° above the horizon

Solar longitude
46.1°, Northern Spring

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North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  35.2°
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POSTSCRIPT
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.