Evolution and Influence of the Martian Hemispheric Dichotomy

Abstract

The single most obvious aspect of Martian topography is that the ancient (~4 Gyr) southern hemisphere is, on average, 2-4 km higher than the northern lowlands, which have younger (<1 Gyr) surface deposits. This feature is very different to the unimodal topography of Venus, but is in some ways similar to the bimodal topography of Earth. It is the purpose of this ongoing study to characterize the geophysical properties of the dichotomy and then use these properties in conjunction with numerical models to investigate its likely formation and influence.