Lunar and Planetary Science XXXIX (2008) 1897.pdf THE CHALLENGE OF EXPLAINING MEANDER BENDS IN THE EBERSWALDE DELTA. E. R. Kraal1 and G. Postma2, 1Department of Geoscience, Virginia Tech, 4044 Derring Hall, Blacksburg, VA 2406 (
[email protected]), 2Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, PO Box 80115, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands (
[email protected]). Introduction: Curved, semi- concentric loops, hypothesis and have conducted research in alternative interpreted as meander bends (point bars) have been formation mechanisms (Kraal and Postma, in prep). recognized in the delta plain of the Eberswalde Delta, Methodology: An alternative for bed-load Holden NE crater (Wood, 2005, Jerolmack et al., transport is ‘en-masse’ sediment transport triggered 2004, Malin & Edgett 2003, Moore et al. 2003). The by catastrophic events of water discharge. This structures have led to important and already deep- would require significantly less water, both within rooted paleo-climate interpretations of a long-lived, the flowing deposit and not require deposition in a Noachian-aged crater lake with persistent liquid standing body of water. To verify if similar bends as water on the Martian surface (Malin and Edgett, in Fig. 1A can be produced by ‘en-masse’ sediment 2003; Moore et al., 2003; Pondrelli et al., 2005) or as transport, we conducted a series of experiments that formation of meander bends with alluvial fans focused on morphological development of debris (Jerolmack et al., 2004). flows of variable water content. Since the ratio sediment/water exerts a primary control on viscosity Background: Meanders, while common in and strength of the flow, we thus obtained a range of some places on the earth, are non-trival features to morphologies that expresses the relative amount form.