Mobility of large rock avalanches: Evidence from Valles Marineris, Mars

Research Article| December 01, 1989 Mobility of large rock avalanches: Evidence from Valles Marineris, Mars Alfred S. McEwen Alfred S. McEwen 1U.S. Geological Survey, 2255 N. Gemini Drive, Flagstaff, Arizona 86001 Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Author and Article Information Alfred S. McEwen 1U.S. Geological Survey, 2255 N. Gemini Drive, Flagstaff, Arizona 86001 Publisher: Geological Society of America First Online: 02 Jun 2017 Online ISSN: 1943-2682 Print ISSN: 0091-7613 Geological Society of America Geology (1989) 17 (12): 1111–1114. https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(1989)017<1111:MOLRAE>2.3.CO;2 Article history First Online: 02 Jun 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Permissions Search Site Citation Alfred S. McEwen; Mobility of large rock avalanches: Evidence from Valles Marineris, Mars. Geology 1989;; 17 (12): 1111–1114. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(1989)017<1111:MOLRAE>2.3.CO;2 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGeology Search Advanced Search Abstract Measurements of H/L (height of drop/length of runout) vs. volume for landslides in Valles Marineris on Mars show a trend of decreasing H/L with increasing volume. This trend, which is linear on a log-log plot, is parallel to but lies above the trend for terrestrial dry rock avalanches. This result and estimates of 104 to 105 Pa yield strength suggest that the landslides were not water saturated, as suggested by previous workers. The offset between the H/L vs. volume trends shows that a typical Martian avalanche must be nearly two orders of magnitude more voluminous than a typical terrestrial avalanche in order to achieve the same mobility. This offset might be explained by the effects of gravity on flows with high yield strengths. These results should prove useful to future efforts to resolve the controversy over the mechan-ics of long-runout avalanches. This content is PDF only. Please click on the PDF icon to access. First Page Preview Close Modal You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.