Chronology of the Outburst Flood Channels

Each channel was active at different times, yet each one appears to have sat exposed on Mars' surface, being slowly eroded by winds in the thin atmosphere and impacted by meteors. Clearly, these flows were not submarine, or other processes would have eroded their surfaces or buried them in layers of sediment. The atmosphere was not any more active at the time of deposition of the floods, so a warm wet climate can be ruled, which kills models of water recycling by rain and snow. Also, it more or less precludes a Martian ocean, since extensive evaporation from that (even if ice covered) would have ameliorated the climate.

The water flood modelcan just about get away with this if each flood froze seperately or was buried in the northern plains by other flood deposits. However this forces us towards subsurface water recycling, which becomes very improbable.

The White Mars model easily explains this since each cryoclastic flow occurred in an atmosphere essentially identical to the present one.
 

Origin and Nature of the Ubiquitous Layering on Mars

Viking era detailed images of Craters and canyons on Mars revealed that their walls are layered. Highly detailed MGS images have emphasised this, and revealed even finer and more continuous layering. Essentially, everything on Mars which is not a volcanic cone, is layered. The extent of layering has been a surprise to many workers, and challenges existing sedimentary or volcanic models of their origin. In addition, the exposed slopes of the craters and canyons reveal that the "rock" is very weak and essentially crumbles to dust with very few boulders being produced. If these rocks were conventional volcanic or sedimentary rocks, one would expect much more competent material with many more boulders.

The conventional model interprets these as extensive lava flows, ignimbrite deposits (~airfall volcanic ashes) or sediments, but none of these explanations is adequate

The White Mars Solution is that these layers are composed of dust and ice, with thin layers of impact melt, all deposited as a result of impact processes on early Mars.
 

      Created: May 2002
      Last modified: May 2002
      Authorised by:  Head, Earth Sciences

      Maintained by: Nick Hoffman
      Email: nhoffman@unimelb.edu.au