the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
| 09 Nov 2022
Exploring the transition between water and wind-dominated landscapes in Deep Springs, California as an analog for transitioning landscapes on Mars
Abstract. Many planetary surfaces have been shaped by aeolian and fluvial processes, and understanding the resulting landscape is of critical importance to understanding changes in climate. Surface features on Earth and Mars are commonly observed using a variety of remote sensing methods. The observed geomorphology provides evidence of present- and paleo-processes, but interpretations are limited by the resolution of the data and similarity to well-understood systems on Earth. In this work, we study a complex fluvio-lacustrine and aeolian landscape at Deep Springs playa, California, using field measurements and remote sensing as an analog for a wet-to-dry transitioning landscape on Mars. The playa system in arid Deep Springs reflects fluvio-lacustrine processes in its interior, but transitions to aeolian-dominated processes along the playa margin. Weather station data and field observations collected over 34 months illustrate the interplay between aeolian and lacustrine processes and provide context for interpreting the observed geomorphology in aerial images. Our results showed a consistent distal-to-proximal geomorphic transition in the landscape defined by the changing expression of polygonal fractures, wave ripples, and evaporite deposits. Crescent shaped sedimentary deposits, originally suspected to be related to barchan dunes, proved unrelated to aeolian processes. We discuss the processes, sedimentary features, and climate drivers at Deep Springs to provide a potential framework for identifying and interpreting similar interactions between fluvioālacustrine and aeolian geomorphology elsewhere on Earth, on Mars, and beyond.
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Notice on discussion status
The requested preprint has a corresponding peer-reviewed final revised paper. You are encouraged to refer to the final revised version.
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Preprint
(1965 KB)
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The requested preprint has a corresponding peer-reviewed final revised paper. You are encouraged to refer to the final revised version.
- Preprint
(1965 KB) - Metadata XML
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- Final revised paper
Journal article(s) based on this preprint
Interactive discussion
Status: closed
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RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2022-1040', Anonymous Referee #1, 18 Dec 2022
Review of "Exploring the transition between water and wind-dominated landscapes in Deep Springs, California as an analog for transitioning landscapes on Mars"
General:
The importance of this paper stems from the author's ability to link monthly and yearly weather data and changes in the landscape to long-lived wet and dry changes on Mars. Most terrestrial studies related to Mars were on a larger timescale, i.e., thousands or millions of years. The work is clearly novel, well-written, and perfectly appropriate for publication in ESURF after considering the following minor suggestions.
- A very interesting point in this work is that the authors found that Deep Springs lost 2.77 m of equivalent water depth, which indicates a 494.2 m shoreline retreat. They then concluded that the drying was net and that a complete drying could occur within the next few years.I wonder if the authors could extract a profile of the water changes over the past years to see whether the lake's drying occurs gradually or abruptly. I think this might be important for early Martian climate.
- Another point that could be interesting is that the Deep Springs occur over an arid zone, and the wet to arid geomorphic processes observed could be aligned with the recent studies that used paleolakes and valley network junction angles to infer that early Martian climate was likely arid to semi-arid (e.g., Stucky de Quay et al., 2020; Seybold et al., 2018). I would suggest calculating the aridity index of the region using rainfall and evapotranspiration. Then It would be great to build a discussion on whether the Martian playa lakes might have formed under arid to semi-arid climates.
- I would suggest mentioning in the introduction that this study examines the transition from wet to arid at monthly and yearly timescales. This is important because most of the terrestrial studies linked to understanding the Martian surface are on a bigger timescale, i.e., thousands or millions of years.
- Somewhere in the discussion, it would be valuable to mention some morphometric characteristics based on Earth analogs that define similar playa lakes on Mars. Maybe in the section of Deep Springs playa as an analog for Mars.
References
Stucky de Quay, G., Goudge, T. A., & Fassett, C. I. (2020). Precipitation and aridity constraints from paleolakes on early Mars. Geology, 48(12), 1189ā1193. https://doi.org/10.1130/g47886.1
Seybold, H. J., Kite, E., & Kirchner, J. W. (2018). Branching geometry of valley networks on Mars and Earth and its implications for early Martian climate. Science Advances, 4(6). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aar6692ĀCitation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1040-RC1 -
RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2022-1040', Elena Favaro, 11 Jan 2023
Review of egusphere-2022-1040
Exploring the transition between water and wind-dominated landscapes in Deep Springs, California as an analog for transitioning landscapes on Mars
Ā
This paper provides us with a novel dataset of monthly and yearly changes to a transitioning landscape that can be used as an analogue for Mars. The authors have thoroughly investigated their study site and share a comprehensive dataset. I provide line-by-line minor comments, mostly having to do with clarification of language.
Minor Comments:
Introduction
General: Somewhere in the introduction, I would highlight the temporal timescales of this study, as must Mars or Martian analogue studies consider much longer timescales. Having a monthly/yearly timestep is quite novel and should be highlighted.
Line 27: Suggested change to āWhen a single type of surface process dominates, the resulting landscape is well known; for example, Ā glaciers carve U-shaped valleys, wind creates dune fields, water causes meandering rivers, and so onā.
Line 29: Delete āboth individually and in combination withā.
Line 36: The text states āHowever, such interactions are of critical importance to understanding climate change and processā. Do you mean to understanding how climate change affects or modifies the dominant geomorphological processes affecting a landscape? This sentence needs to be flushed out a bit more.
Line 37: Suggested addition to āOn Mars, climate and atmospheric conditions were once similar to Earthāā¦
Line 64: Suggest changing āsignificantlyā to āsubstantivelyā. You use 'significantly' later on in the paper (line 213) to refer to a statistically significant result.
Line 72: Please convert flow rate to metric
Line 72: Delete āprovidedā. Could change to āThe flow rate calculated by Jones (1965)ā¦ā.
Line 83: Please convert feet to meters.
Methodology
Line 87: āSurface imagingā: Satellite surface imaging or field photos? You've qualified that you have 'drone images', so you might want to qualify this as well.
Line 105: Suggestion: Add (Figure 1) at the end of the sentence.
Line 107: āsediment trapsā, not āsediments trapsā.
Line 110: Suggestion: āHowever, when the stationary sediment trapsā¦ā
Line 112: Suggest having āfig. 1dā come after your first mention of MWACs.
Line 117: Suggest change from ācollected during each visit o the field areaā to āfield siteā, just for variety.
Line 120: Please spell out āframes per secondā.
Line 120-121: Change ādrone footage was taken 7 timesā to ādrone footage was collectedā¦ā
Line 124: Change āā¦and see if a changeā to āevaluate ifā.
Ā
Results
Line 186: Please confirm the temperature is in Celsius and not Fahrenheit?
Line 190: Only one C is necessary Ć°ĀĀĀ
Line 216: For the first sentence, can you include the dates here? I know you just reported them, but there are a few dates floating around and this would help the reader know which 'monitoring period' is relevant.
Line 227: Suggested change for the sentence starting āIn allā¦ā: āOverall/Unfortunately, the resolution of the satellite images could not be used to confidently identify shoreline position.ā
Line 231: Change āsome regionā to āvarious regionsā.
Line 236: I was confused by your use of āmaximum observed shoreline levelā. Ā In lines 227-228, you state the satellite imagery couldn't confidently identify shoreline position. But here you suggest you can. In the lines above, do you mean you were unable to map the progression of shorelines? If that's the case, I would make that clearer.Ā
Line 239: Lake does not need to be capitolized.
Line 240: Change āin scaleā to āacrossā.
Line 246-247: Suggested rewording: āSome of the crescent features were isolated, whereas others were touching or connected, and therefore not discrete forms (Fig. 3c-e).ā
Line 247: Add comma after āhigh resolution imageā.
Line 251: Delete āfieldā
Line 252: Change āobservedā to ādocumentedā ā you used āobservedā in the previous sentence.
Line 252: Start a new sentence at āIn betweenā.
Line 255: Suggested rewording āCrescent features resembling those identified and measured in 2013ā¦ā
Line 256-257: Suggested rewording: āWhereas the crescent features observed in 2013 satellite imagery were bright toned, these the 2021 features match the surrounding muddy surfaceā¦ā. Adding the years helped me follow the narrative a bit better.
Line 263: observed how? In situ/drone/satellite?
Line 267/Line 272: Change āon footā to āin situā.
Line 273: change āgreater in heightā to ātallerā.
Line 277 onward: Suggested change: āIt is unclear when these springs become active or inactive as the dark deposits around the springs can be seen throughout the year, but do not persist in the same location. Spring deposit diameters range in scale from a few centimeters to more than a meter across in, with larger features occurring further into the basin interiorā¦ā
Line 290: change āin thicknessā to āthickā.
Line 293: Which lake? Or just donāt capitalize Lake.
Line 294: This is super picky and very pedantic, but youāve spelled meter differently here. Meter is the US spelling, while -metre is the French/Canadian/UK spelling. I only noticed because I mix mine up as well.
Line 308: Change āā¦only small amounts of dust which were too insignificant to measureā to ātrace amounts of dustā.
Line 313: what does āmanual inspectionā mean? In situ observations of the core materials?
Line 326: Suggest adding āā¦groundwater inputsā.
Discussion
Line 332: Associated
Line 353: Please convert mph to km/hr
Line 354: Threshold for motion for dry sand. I wonder how much more windspeed is needed for wet sand. Although, you have demonstrated there is no sand in the playa interior, but it's just something to think about
Line 353: Suggest adding āStraight-crested, and with centimeterā¦ā.
Line 369: Delete āeverā
Line 395: Suggest changing to āhas not changed over roughly the past 100 yearsā.
Line 400: This was a very interesting section.
Line 480: Careful with definitive language like āmust have dried and become a salt panā¦ā. It did dry (obviously), but may not have become a salt pan. This is a nit-picky comment, I realize, but did want to share.
Line 499: Change to āaeolian dune-like surface morphologyā
Line 507: āThe observations from this workā¦ā.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1040-RC2 -
AC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2022-1040 for both reviewers', Taylor Dorn, 03 Feb 2023
Attached are our responses to each comment provided by each reviewer. Comments provided by the reviewers are in black while our responses herein are written in blue text.
- AC2: 'Reply on AC1', Taylor Dorn, 03 Feb 2023
Interactive discussion
Status: closed
-
RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2022-1040', Anonymous Referee #1, 18 Dec 2022
Review of "Exploring the transition between water and wind-dominated landscapes in Deep Springs, California as an analog for transitioning landscapes on Mars"
General:
The importance of this paper stems from the author's ability to link monthly and yearly weather data and changes in the landscape to long-lived wet and dry changes on Mars. Most terrestrial studies related to Mars were on a larger timescale, i.e., thousands or millions of years. The work is clearly novel, well-written, and perfectly appropriate for publication in ESURF after considering the following minor suggestions.
- A very interesting point in this work is that the authors found that Deep Springs lost 2.77 m of equivalent water depth, which indicates a 494.2 m shoreline retreat. They then concluded that the drying was net and that a complete drying could occur within the next few years.I wonder if the authors could extract a profile of the water changes over the past years to see whether the lake's drying occurs gradually or abruptly. I think this might be important for early Martian climate.
- Another point that could be interesting is that the Deep Springs occur over an arid zone, and the wet to arid geomorphic processes observed could be aligned with the recent studies that used paleolakes and valley network junction angles to infer that early Martian climate was likely arid to semi-arid (e.g., Stucky de Quay et al., 2020; Seybold et al., 2018). I would suggest calculating the aridity index of the region using rainfall and evapotranspiration. Then It would be great to build a discussion on whether the Martian playa lakes might have formed under arid to semi-arid climates.
- I would suggest mentioning in the introduction that this study examines the transition from wet to arid at monthly and yearly timescales. This is important because most of the terrestrial studies linked to understanding the Martian surface are on a bigger timescale, i.e., thousands or millions of years.
- Somewhere in the discussion, it would be valuable to mention some morphometric characteristics based on Earth analogs that define similar playa lakes on Mars. Maybe in the section of Deep Springs playa as an analog for Mars.
References
Stucky de Quay, G., Goudge, T. A., & Fassett, C. I. (2020). Precipitation and aridity constraints from paleolakes on early Mars. Geology, 48(12), 1189ā1193. https://doi.org/10.1130/g47886.1
Seybold, H. J., Kite, E., & Kirchner, J. W. (2018). Branching geometry of valley networks on Mars and Earth and its implications for early Martian climate. Science Advances, 4(6). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aar6692ĀCitation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1040-RC1 -
RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2022-1040', Elena Favaro, 11 Jan 2023
Review of egusphere-2022-1040
Exploring the transition between water and wind-dominated landscapes in Deep Springs, California as an analog for transitioning landscapes on Mars
Ā
This paper provides us with a novel dataset of monthly and yearly changes to a transitioning landscape that can be used as an analogue for Mars. The authors have thoroughly investigated their study site and share a comprehensive dataset. I provide line-by-line minor comments, mostly having to do with clarification of language.
Minor Comments:
Introduction
General: Somewhere in the introduction, I would highlight the temporal timescales of this study, as must Mars or Martian analogue studies consider much longer timescales. Having a monthly/yearly timestep is quite novel and should be highlighted.
Line 27: Suggested change to āWhen a single type of surface process dominates, the resulting landscape is well known; for example, Ā glaciers carve U-shaped valleys, wind creates dune fields, water causes meandering rivers, and so onā.
Line 29: Delete āboth individually and in combination withā.
Line 36: The text states āHowever, such interactions are of critical importance to understanding climate change and processā. Do you mean to understanding how climate change affects or modifies the dominant geomorphological processes affecting a landscape? This sentence needs to be flushed out a bit more.
Line 37: Suggested addition to āOn Mars, climate and atmospheric conditions were once similar to Earthāā¦
Line 64: Suggest changing āsignificantlyā to āsubstantivelyā. You use 'significantly' later on in the paper (line 213) to refer to a statistically significant result.
Line 72: Please convert flow rate to metric
Line 72: Delete āprovidedā. Could change to āThe flow rate calculated by Jones (1965)ā¦ā.
Line 83: Please convert feet to meters.
Methodology
Line 87: āSurface imagingā: Satellite surface imaging or field photos? You've qualified that you have 'drone images', so you might want to qualify this as well.
Line 105: Suggestion: Add (Figure 1) at the end of the sentence.
Line 107: āsediment trapsā, not āsediments trapsā.
Line 110: Suggestion: āHowever, when the stationary sediment trapsā¦ā
Line 112: Suggest having āfig. 1dā come after your first mention of MWACs.
Line 117: Suggest change from ācollected during each visit o the field areaā to āfield siteā, just for variety.
Line 120: Please spell out āframes per secondā.
Line 120-121: Change ādrone footage was taken 7 timesā to ādrone footage was collectedā¦ā
Line 124: Change āā¦and see if a changeā to āevaluate ifā.
Ā
Results
Line 186: Please confirm the temperature is in Celsius and not Fahrenheit?
Line 190: Only one C is necessary Ć°ĀĀĀ
Line 216: For the first sentence, can you include the dates here? I know you just reported them, but there are a few dates floating around and this would help the reader know which 'monitoring period' is relevant.
Line 227: Suggested change for the sentence starting āIn allā¦ā: āOverall/Unfortunately, the resolution of the satellite images could not be used to confidently identify shoreline position.ā
Line 231: Change āsome regionā to āvarious regionsā.
Line 236: I was confused by your use of āmaximum observed shoreline levelā. Ā In lines 227-228, you state the satellite imagery couldn't confidently identify shoreline position. But here you suggest you can. In the lines above, do you mean you were unable to map the progression of shorelines? If that's the case, I would make that clearer.Ā
Line 239: Lake does not need to be capitolized.
Line 240: Change āin scaleā to āacrossā.
Line 246-247: Suggested rewording: āSome of the crescent features were isolated, whereas others were touching or connected, and therefore not discrete forms (Fig. 3c-e).ā
Line 247: Add comma after āhigh resolution imageā.
Line 251: Delete āfieldā
Line 252: Change āobservedā to ādocumentedā ā you used āobservedā in the previous sentence.
Line 252: Start a new sentence at āIn betweenā.
Line 255: Suggested rewording āCrescent features resembling those identified and measured in 2013ā¦ā
Line 256-257: Suggested rewording: āWhereas the crescent features observed in 2013 satellite imagery were bright toned, these the 2021 features match the surrounding muddy surfaceā¦ā. Adding the years helped me follow the narrative a bit better.
Line 263: observed how? In situ/drone/satellite?
Line 267/Line 272: Change āon footā to āin situā.
Line 273: change āgreater in heightā to ātallerā.
Line 277 onward: Suggested change: āIt is unclear when these springs become active or inactive as the dark deposits around the springs can be seen throughout the year, but do not persist in the same location. Spring deposit diameters range in scale from a few centimeters to more than a meter across in, with larger features occurring further into the basin interiorā¦ā
Line 290: change āin thicknessā to āthickā.
Line 293: Which lake? Or just donāt capitalize Lake.
Line 294: This is super picky and very pedantic, but youāve spelled meter differently here. Meter is the US spelling, while -metre is the French/Canadian/UK spelling. I only noticed because I mix mine up as well.
Line 308: Change āā¦only small amounts of dust which were too insignificant to measureā to ātrace amounts of dustā.
Line 313: what does āmanual inspectionā mean? In situ observations of the core materials?
Line 326: Suggest adding āā¦groundwater inputsā.
Discussion
Line 332: Associated
Line 353: Please convert mph to km/hr
Line 354: Threshold for motion for dry sand. I wonder how much more windspeed is needed for wet sand. Although, you have demonstrated there is no sand in the playa interior, but it's just something to think about
Line 353: Suggest adding āStraight-crested, and with centimeterā¦ā.
Line 369: Delete āeverā
Line 395: Suggest changing to āhas not changed over roughly the past 100 yearsā.
Line 400: This was a very interesting section.
Line 480: Careful with definitive language like āmust have dried and become a salt panā¦ā. It did dry (obviously), but may not have become a salt pan. This is a nit-picky comment, I realize, but did want to share.
Line 499: Change to āaeolian dune-like surface morphologyā
Line 507: āThe observations from this workā¦ā.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1040-RC2 -
AC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2022-1040 for both reviewers', Taylor Dorn, 03 Feb 2023
Attached are our responses to each comment provided by each reviewer. Comments provided by the reviewers are in black while our responses herein are written in blue text.
- AC2: 'Reply on AC1', Taylor Dorn, 03 Feb 2023
Peer review completion
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Taylor Dorn
Mackenzie Day
The requested preprint has a corresponding peer-reviewed final revised paper. You are encouraged to refer to the final revised version.
- Preprint
(1965 KB) - Metadata XML