A Mars-oriented image database of hand lens–scale features and textures: The 1996 Skeiđarársandur jökulhlaup example
R. A. Yingst, M. E. Schmidt, Rachel C. F. Lentz, Jason L. Janzen, Kim R. Kuhlman · Geological Society of America eBooks · 2011
Analysis of geologic materials at the microscale—where we use the term "microscale" to refer to features resolved approximately by a hand lens—has proven to be a powerful strategy to maximize the information gleaned from limited samples, such as on Mars. However, discrimination between processes that leave behind similar traces requires enlightened comparisons to well-characterized analogs. We characterized and imaged several terrestrial analogs of materials produced by volcanic, hydrovolcanic, or cryovolcanic Martian processes at the hand lens scale, and then we produced a convenient tool for the community to access those data for comparisons. We report on the preparation of this Mars-focused image atlas (the Mars Analog Handlens-Scale Image Database), using as an example analog studies of particles deposited by the 1996 Skeiđarársandur jökulhlaup (a jökulhlaup is a subglacially generated outwash flood resulting in a sandur, or sheet of outwash sands and gravel).