Reconstructing river flows remotely on Earth, Titan, and Mars
Contributed by Gary Parker; received May 12, 2022; accepted June 5, 2023; reviewed by William E. Dietrich, Mathieu G. Lapôtre, and Peter Wilcock
Significance
Rivers have been found only on Earth, Mars, and Saturn’s moon Titan. We use a universal framework for river geometry to unlock clues about the climates of all three worlds. On Earth, our method can predict sediment and water fluxes in regions where field surveys are impractical. On Mars, our results imply that the river deposits explored in situ by NASA’s Perseverance and Curiosity rovers required prolonged time periods when conditions favorable for life were maintained. On Titan, we show that its active methane rivers may have substantially different geometry than rivers on Earth. NASA’s Dragonfly mission to Titan can test our predictions and may witness active sediment transport.
Abstract
Alluvial rivers are conveyor belts of fluid and sediment that provide a record of upstream climate and erosion on Earth, Titan, and Mars. However, many of Earth’s rivers remain unsurveyed, Titan’s rivers are not well resolved by current spacecraft data, and Mars’ rivers are no longer active, hindering reconstructions of planetary surface conditions. To overcome these problems, we use dimensionless hydraulic geometry relations—scaling laws that relate river channel dimensions to flow and sediment transport rates—to calculate in-channel conditions using only remote sensing measurements of channel width and slope. On Earth, this offers a way to predict flow and sediment flux in rivers that lack field measurements and shows that the distinct dynamics of bedload-dominated, suspended load-dominated, and bedrock rivers give rise to distinct channel characteristics. On Mars, this approach not only predicts grain sizes at Gale Crater and Jezero Crater that overlap with those measured by the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers, it enables reconstructions of past flow conditions that are consistent with proposed long-lived hydrologic activity at both craters. On Titan, our predicted sediment fluxes to the coast of Ontario Lacus could build the lake’s river delta in as little as ~1,000 y, and our scaling relationships suggest that Titan’s rivers may be wider, slope more gently, and transport sediment at lower flows than rivers on Earth or Mars. Our approach provides a template for predicting channel properties remotely for alluvial rivers across Earth, along with interpreting spacecraft observations of rivers on Titan and Mars.
Data, Materials, and Software Availability
All study data are included in the article and/or SI Appendix.
Acknowledgments
We thank Jaap Nienhuis, Samuel Goldberg, and Kim Huppert for helpful discussions and directions to relevant terrestrial data. The manuscript was greatly improved due to thoughtful reviews from W.E.D., M.G.L., and P.W. This research was supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation (51 Pegasi b Fellowship to S.P.D.B.), and the Cassini Data Analysis Program (#80NSSC18K1057 and #80NSSC20K0484).
Author contributions
S.P.D.B., G.P., and J.T.P. designed research; S.P.D.B. performed research; G.P., P.C., J.M.S., J.W.M., R.V.P., J.M.L., A.D.A., and A.G.H. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; S.P.D.B., J.W.M., and J.T.P. analyzed data; and S.P.D.B. and J.T.P. wrote the paper.
Competing interests
S.P.D.B. is a coauthor of a white paper with M.G.L.: New Frontiers Titan Orbiter, Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, p. 317, 2021.
Supporting Information
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Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).
Data, Materials, and Software Availability
All study data are included in the article and/or SI Appendix.
Submission history
Received: May 12, 2022
Accepted: June 5, 2023
Published online: July 10, 2023
Published in issue: July 18, 2023
Keywords
Acknowledgments
We thank Jaap Nienhuis, Samuel Goldberg, and Kim Huppert for helpful discussions and directions to relevant terrestrial data. The manuscript was greatly improved due to thoughtful reviews from W.E.D., M.G.L., and P.W. This research was supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation (51 Pegasi b Fellowship to S.P.D.B.), and the Cassini Data Analysis Program (#80NSSC18K1057 and #80NSSC20K0484).
Author contributions
S.P.D.B., G.P., and J.T.P. designed research; S.P.D.B. performed research; G.P., P.C., J.M.S., J.W.M., R.V.P., J.M.L., A.D.A., and A.G.H. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; S.P.D.B., J.W.M., and J.T.P. analyzed data; and S.P.D.B. and J.T.P. wrote the paper.
Competing interests
S.P.D.B. is a coauthor of a white paper with M.G.L.: New Frontiers Titan Orbiter, Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, p. 317, 2021.
Notes
Reviewers: W.E.D., University of California; M.G.L., Stanford University; and P.W., Utah State University.
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Reconstructing river flows remotely on Earth, Titan, and Mars, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
120 (29) e2206837120,
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2206837120
(2023).
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