Timescales of the Climate Record in the South Polar Ice Cap of Mars

Becerra Valdes, Patricio; Sori, Michael M.; Thomas, Nicolas; Pommerol, Antoine; Simioni, Emanuele; Sutton, Sarah S.; Tulyakov, Stepan; Cremonese, Gabriele (2019). Timescales of the Climate Record in the South Polar Ice Cap of Mars. Geophysical Research Letters, 46(13), pp. 7268-7277. American Geophysical Union 10.1029/2019gl083588

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The South Polar Layered Deposits (SPLD) are the largest water ice reservoirs on Mars. Their
accumulation is believed to result from climate oscillations that drive the movement of ice and dust on the
surface. The High‐Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging
System have imaged exposures of its internal structure in troughs and marginal scarps. Here we use the
stereo imaging products of these instruments to extract stratigraphic profiles representative of various
locations throughout the SPLD. Through wavelet and series‐matching analyses of these profiles, we reveal
periodicities in the stratigraphy that correlate to the orbital oscillations that drive climate change on
Mars and that have been observed to force the accumulation of the north polar cap. We infer that the water
ice and dust of the SPLD were deposited at variable rates of 0.13–0.39 mm/year, taking a minimum of 10–30
Myr to accumulate.

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