Valley networks and the record of glaciation on ancient Mars

The lack of evidence for large-scale glacial landscapes on Mars has led to the belief that ancient

glaciations had to be frozen to the ground. Here we propose that the fingerprints of Martian wet-based

glaciation should be the remnants of the ice sheet drainage system instead of landforms generally associated

with terrestrial ice sheets. We use the terrestrial glacial hydrology framework to interrogate how the Martian

surface gravity affects glacial hydrology, ice sliding, and glacial erosion. Taking as reference the ancient

southern circumpolar ice sheet that deposited the Dorsa Argentea formation, we compare the theoretical

behavior of identical ice sheets on Mars and Earth and show that, whereas on Earth glacial drainage is

predominantly inefficient, enhancing ice sliding and erosion, on Mars the lower gravity favors the formation of

efficient subglacial drainage. The apparent lack of large-scale glacial fingerprints on Mars, such as drumlins or

lineations, is to be expected.