Volcanic Disruption of Recent Icy Terrain in the Argyre Basin, Mars

Abstract A suite of spatially related and possibly volcanic/tectonic features (including fault-, maar-, and cavi-like structures) have disrupted largely uncratered volcanic and possibly ice-mantled or ice-rich terrain in the northwest part of the Argyre impact basin. The icy terrain is thought to form directly or indirectly by atmospheric precipitation and surface accumulation at the mid- to high latitudes during periods of higher obliquities in both Martian hemispheres. The last obliquity excursion occurred within the last 350–400 ka, suggesting that the terminal stage of endogenic landscape modification in this area could have been very recent.