Geology of Libya Montes and the Interbasin Plains of Northern Tyrrhena Terra, Mars: Project Introduction and First Year Work Plan

The highland-lowland boundary (HLB) of Mars is interpreted to be a complex tectonic and erosional transition that may hold evidence for past geologic processes and environments. The HLB-abutting margin of the Libya Montes and the interbasin plains of northern Tyrrhena Terra display an exceptional view of the earliest to middle history of Mars that has yet to be fully characterized. This region contains some of the oldest exposed materials on the Martian surface as well as aqueous mineral signatures that may be potential chemical artifacts of early highland formational processes. However, a full understanding of the regions geologic and stratigraphic evolution is remarkably lacking. Some outstanding questions regarding the geologic evolution of Libya Montes and northern Tyrrhena Terra in-clude: Does combining geomorphology and composition advance our understanding of the region s evolution? Can highland materials be subdivided into stratigraphically discrete rock and sediment sequences? What do major physiographic transitions imply about the balanced tectonism, climate change, and erosion? Where is the erosional origin and what is the post-depositional history of channel and plains units? When and in what types of environments did aqueous mineral signatures arise? This abstract introduces the geologic setting, science rationale, and first year work plan of a recently-funded 4-year geologic mapping proposal (project year = calendar year). The objective is to delineate the geologic evolution of Libya Montes and northern Tyrrhena Terra at 1:1M scale using both classical geomorphological and compositional mapping techniques. The funded quadrangles are MTMs 00282, -05282, -10282, 00277, -05277, and -10277