Crater Lakes on Mars: Development of Quantitative Thermal and Geomorphic Models

Impact craters on Mars have served as catchments for channel-eroding surface fluids, and hundreds of examples of candidate paleolakes are documented [1,2] (see Figure 1). Because these features show similarity to terrestrial shorelines, wave action has been hypothesized as the geomorphic agent responsible for the generation of these features [3]. Recent efforts have examined the potential for shoreline formation by wind-driven waves, in order to turn an important but controversial idea into a quantitative, falsifiable hypothesis. These studies have concluded that significant wave-action shorelines are unlikely to have formed commonly within craters on Mars, barring Earth-like weather for approx.1000 years [4,5,6].