New Evidence to Support Zephyria Tholus as a Composite Volcano on Mars

Abstract

Zephyria Tholus has been proposed to be a composite volcano, however, detailed geomorphological study was not carried out due to limited high-resolution remote sensing data. Here we use MOLA, THEMIS, CTX and HiRISE data to conduct topographical and geomorphological analysis of Zephyria Tholus. We identify extensive valleys and troughs on the flank, which are sector collapse or glacio-fluvial in origin. The valleys and troughs indicate coexistence of different erosion resistance materials, along with the observed solid lava outcrops. There are also layered materials identified on the wall of the largest valley. In addition, perched craters are identified on the top depression and flanks of Zephyria Tholus, indicating the presence of ice-rich layer. We conducted crater size-frequency distribution of the caldera and found the absolute model age is 3.74 (+0.03, −0.04) Ga. The geomorphology evidence and chronology result support the composite volcano nature of Zephyria Tholus, and indicate the magma volatile content in the Aeolis region in Noachian is more than 0.15 wt% if the atmosphere paleo-pressure was similar to present Mars.