Planetary hydrology: implications for the past Martian climate and present Titan Lake hydrology using numerical models of the hydrologic cycles on Titan and Mars

Abstract

The revelation, through the continued exploration of the Solar System, that Earth’s own hydrologic cycle is non-unique raises questions regarding the nature of hydrologic systems on planets and moons. Mars and Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, are prime candidates for exploring hydrology and hydrology-like systems in the Solar System. The past aqueous history of Mars tells a compelling story of perennial surface and subsurface hydrology following planet formation, and a drastic change in climate to the cold, dry planet at present-day. The nature of the past climate on Mars and climate change is debated, with some suggesting a cold, snow- and glacial-melt driven runoff and ponding cycle, while others favor a wetter past Mars consistent with liquid precipitation runoff and lake formation. Titan’s exotic atmospheric and surface chemistry, as well as its surface conditions allows liquid hydrocarbons to rain on the surface, flow as surface runoff through channels, infiltrate into the subsurface, form hydrocarbon lakes, and evaporate back in to the atmosphere, analogous to a hydrological cycle on Earth. In this dissertation, I evaluate the past hydrology and climate at Gale Crater on Mars, the current site of the Curiosity rover and the present hydrocarbon-based hydrology of lakes on Titan using hydrological models of paleo-lakes. Modeling results are compared to the distribution of lakes on both Mars and Titan, as well as observed sedimentary layering and elevation of past lake stands in Gale Crater on Mars. On Titan, the distribution of methane rainfall, with a wet to dry transition from the poles to the equator, results in a precipitation-driven hydraulic head gradient and equatorward subsurface flow, inconsistent with the lower elevations observed at the poles. While no single model fits the observed lake distribution at the north polar region, a permeability that limits subsurface flow and the retardation of evaporation from the largest lake is required to match the observed lake distribution. On Mars, inferred lake stands and sediment layering in Gale Crater provides constraints on the past climate of Mars and is largely consistent with a semi-arid climate. This work also shows that although sediment deposition will alter the crater topography, Gale craters unique location at the dichotomy boundary is advantageous for lake formation in a vertically integrated hydrologic system, even under dry climate conditions. In this thesis I show that using a hydrologic model that incorporates a subsurface, surface, and atmospheric component and observed lakes and paleo-lake environments on extra-terrestrial bodies, the past and present subsurface and atmospheric conditions on data sparse worlds can be constrained.