PS6.1

Geological mapping and cartography on Earth encompasses principally the description of the landforms, i.e. geomorphology, the lithology and the age (stratigraphy) of the rocks found at or beneath the Earth’s surface. By interpretation of this information genetic information (process, event and environment) can be derived from the rock units encountered and often is included in geological maps, in particular in larger scale maps.

Mapping agencies and geological survey organisations everywhere have for centuries been developing their own regional or national mapping methods and representation colour sets and symbols to represent the geological information on paper and now in spatial databases and GIS.

BGR and its predecessors has been undertaking geological mapping at both large and small scales since the 19^th century and through this has gained considerable mapping experience. This contribution describes the establishment of mapping rules and guidelines for three small-scale European cross-boundary mapping projects implemented through international cooperation: the IGME 5000 (pre-Quaternary) and the IQUAME (Quaternary) projects, and the EMODnet Geology seafloor work-package. The experience gained within the projects in the creation and use of standardised specifications for data models and cartographic aspects such as symbols and colours will be introduced and challenges, advantages and disadvantages  will be discussed.

All three projects include off-shore geological information; in particular these aspects of the marine mapping and cartography may be partly comparable to planetary mapping, since “even with all the technology that we have today -- satellites, buoys, underwater vehicles and ship tracks -- we have better maps of the surface of Mars and the Moon than we do the bottom of the ocean.” [Gene Feldmann, NASA, 10.08.2009].

Thus the experience and results in Earth mapping described may contribute and serve as “good practise” for the benefit of the fascinating new field of planetary mapping.

How to cite: Asch, K.: Small-scale geological mapping on Earth: Setting up guidelines, standards and portrayal rules. Experience from pan-European projects, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-16116, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-16116, 2021.

The Discovery quadrangle of Mercury (H-11) located in the area between 22.5°S–65°S and 270°E–360°E encompasses structures of paramount importance for understanding Mercury’s tectonics. The quadrangle is named after Discovery Rupes, a NE-SW trending lobate scarp, which is one of the longest and highest on Mercury (600 km in length and 2 km high). By examining the existing maps of this area (Trask and Dzurisin, 1984; Byrne et al., 2014), several other oblique trending structures are visible. More mapping detail could be achieved by using the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) imagery. We aim at mapping the structures of H-11 at high-resolution by using MESSENGER/MDIS basemaps, in order to understand its regional tectonic history by following the work done in the Victoria quadrangle (H-2) (Galluzzi et al., 2019). Differently from H-2, located in the same longitudinal range but at opposite latitudes, this area lacks in N-S trending scarps, such as the Victoria-Endeavour-Antoniadi fault system, which dominates the northern hemisphere structural framework. The existing tectonic theories predict either an isotropic pattern of faults (global contraction) or an ordered distribution and orientation of faults (tidal despinning) for Mercury. If we expect that the existing tectonic patterns were governed by only one of the two processes or both together, it is difficult to understand how such different trends formed within these two complementary areas. The structural study done for H-2 reveals that the geochemical discontinuities present in Mercury’s crust may have guided and influenced the trend and kinematics of faults in that area (Galluzzi et al., 2019). In particular, the high-magnesium region seems to be associated with fault systems that either follow its boundary or are located within it. These fault systems show distinct kinematics and trends. The south-eastern border of the HMR is located within H-11. Hence, with this study, we aim at complementing the previous one to better describe the tectonics linked to the presence of the HMR. Furthermore, this geostructural map will complement the future geomorphological map of the area and will be part of the 1:3M quadrangle geological map series which are being prepared in view of the BepiColombo mission (Galluzzi, 2019). Acknowledgements: We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Italian Space Agency (ASI) under ASI-INAF agreement 2017-47-H.0.

Byrne et al. (2014). Nature Geoscience, 7(4), 301-307.

Galluzzi, V. (2019). In: Planetary Cartography and GIS (pp. 207-218). Springer, Cham.

Galluzzi et al. (2019). Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 124(10), 2543-2562.

Trask and Dzurisin (1984). USGS, IMAP 1658.

How to cite: Galluzzi, V., Ferranti, L., Giacomini, L., and Palumbo, P.: Geostructural mapping of the Discovery Quadrangle (H-11), Mercury, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-16184, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-16184, 2021.

Morphometric parameters allow us to categorize relief features and create maps of geological and geomorphological formations on Earth and other celestial bodies. Catalogs of impact craters can be extremely useful for these purposes, since diameter, shape and other characteristics of craters should be taken into account in most cases when morphometric parameters are calculated.

We work on automation of geomorphological analysis and mapping. To achieve it we used supervised classification method and MESSENGER’s data – global mosaic of Mercury, images and several DEMs [1, 2]. Supervised classification method implies training samples which are necessary to find ranges of values, associated to a certain relief form, and define boundaries between the different types of surface, which training samples represent: smooth plains, hummocky inter-crater plains, etc.

In order to analyze and zone the surface at the global level, we calculated the following morphometric parameters:
1. Interquartile range of the second derivative of heights [3]. This parameter gives us the global patterns of planetary relief – distribution of smooth and rough areas.
2. Relative topographic position (RTP) [4]. This parameter is suitable for automatic detection of concave/convex objects.
3. Vertical curvature. It is a measure of relative deceleration and acceleration of gravity-driven flows. Maps of vertical curvature show terraces and scarps [5].

Additionally we studied craters included in the catalog. We calculated various morphometric parameters for all of them, such as: depth, relative depth (the ratio of depth to diameter of craters), rim’s volume to bowl’s volume ratio and steepness of craters’ slopes.

As result we created thematic maps based on all of these parameters. At the detailed level, craters with complex structure (terraces and central peaks), craters located next to unusual textures [6] and multi-ringed basins were selected as objects of mapping. At the global level, we show regional differences in density of different categories of craters (with various degrees of their preservation).

Zharkova A.Yu., Kokhanov A.A., Kolenkina M.M., Kozlova N.A. and Zavyalov I.Yu. were supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), project No 20-35-70019.

[1] Becker K. J., Robinson M. S., Becker T. L., Weller L. A., Edmundson K. L., Neumann G. A., Perry, M. E., Solomon, S. C. First Global Digital
Elevation Model of Mercury. 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, 2016, LPI Contribution No. 1903, p.2959.
[2] Preusker F., Oberst J., Stark A., Matz K-D., Gwinner K., Roatsch T., 2017 High-Resolution Topography from MESSENGER Orbital Stereo Imaging – The Southern hemispehre. EPSC Abstracts, Vol. 11, EPSC2017-591.
[3] Kokhanov, A.A., Bystrov, A.Y., Kreslavsky, M.A., Matveev, E.V., Karachevtseva, I.P., 2016. Automation of morphometric measurements for planetary surface analysis and cartography. In Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLI-B4, 431-433. doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLI-B4-431-2016.
[4] Jenness, J., 2006. Topographic Position Index (TPI) v. 1.3a, Jenness Enterprices. url: http://www.jennessent.com/arcview/tpi.htm
[5] Florinsky, I.V. An illustrated introduction to general geomorphometry. Progress in Physical Geography, 2017, 41: 723–752. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0309133317733667 
[6] Zharkova A.Yu., Kreslavsky M.A., Head J.W., Kokhanov A.A. Regolith textures on Mercury: Comparison with the Moon. Icarus, Volume 351, 2020, 113945, ISSN 0019-1035, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2020.113945

How to cite: Zharkova, A., Kokhanov, A., Kolenkina, M., Kozlova, N., Zavyalov, I., and Karachevtseva, I.: Morphometric analysis and mapping: ways to apply the new global catalog of Mercury’s craters, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-3294, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-3294, 2021.

The ESA Mars Express mission was launched in June 2003 and reached Martian orbit in December of the same year. Among the instruments onboard, the Italian-American radar MARSIS has retrieved valuable data, therefore contributing many discoveries related to the Red Planet, such as the evidence of sub-glacial water lakes beneath the South Pole of Mars. The technique used by this antenna is the radar echo sounding which, thanks to the electromagnetic waves emitted at frequencies in the HF range – in four separate bands centered at 1.8, 3, 4, and 5 MHz - has the ability to penetrate the ice masses, allowing the study of the internal properties and structures of glaciers and the regolith underneath.
Based on selected MARSIS radargrams, the main purpose of our analysis is to define the topography and main morphologies of the bedrock beneath Ultimi Lobe, part of the South Polar Ice Cap. Geologically speaking, this region is characterized by the South Polar Layered Deposits unit, widely showing complex layering and locally broad deformational structures (i.e., faults and folds). In particular, through the use of a georeferenced model of the bedrock surface, we focused on the search for low-topographies possibly consistent with basins able to contain the subglacial water reservoirs inferred by Orosei et al. (2018) and Lauro et al. (2020). Furthermore, we are implementing an algorithm focused on semi-automatic surface delineation using radar echo observations. Through the implementation of this script and retrieved data/images, we suggest that the machine-learning algorithm could be trained for further analysis.

How to cite: Di Silvestro, G., Orosei, R., Guallini, L., and Morelli, A.: Mapping the topography beneath the southern Martian polar cap using MARSIS high-resolution data, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-3137, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-3137, 2021.

In 2023, the ExoMars mission will deploy a stationary surface platform and a rover in Oxia Planum (OP), a region at the transition between the heavily cratered highlands of Mars and the ancient and filled impact basin, Chryse Planitia. While the fundamental geologic characteristics of the area have been investigated during the landing site selection process, detailed geologic or morpho-stratigraphic mapping is still missing. To fill this knowledge gap, two complementary mapping approaches were initiated by the ExoMars RSOWG: (1) Local HiRISE-scale mapping of the landing ellipse(s) area (reported elsewhere: Sefton-Nash et al., LPSC 2021, #1947). (2) Regional mapping at ~CTX-scale [this study] will provide a synoptic view of the wider landing site within OP, enabling the contextualization of the units within the stratigraphy of western Arabia Terra and Chryse Planitia, and a comparison to other sites with similar key geologic and physiographic characteristics. It is also expected that this map will serve as a geologic reference throughout the mission and subsequent data analysis. The study area is located between 16.5°N and 19.5°N, and 334°E to 338°E. The data sets used for mapping include HRSC, THEMIS IR (day and night), CTX, and CaSSIS. Mapping scale in a GIS environment is 1:100,000, which will result in a final printable map at a scale of 1:1M.

Mapping started in mid-October 2019. Overall, the identified map units are very similar to those described by Quantin et al. (Astrobiology, vol. 21, 2021): The spatially most widespread units are the phyllosilicate-bearing unit that is the prime ExoMars target (with distinctly enhanced THEMIS nighttime temperatures when compared to its surroundings), a dark resistant unit of possibly volcanic or sedimentary origin, and a mantling unit that was likely emplaced by eolian processes. Multiple channels of various morphology and degradation state as well as sedimentary fan-shaped deposits (with low nighttime temperatures) imply a diverse and possibly long-lived history of surface runoff, perhaps accompanied or replaced by groundwater processes such as sapping. Inverted landforms (channels, impact craters) are the result of intense erosion. Additional mapped features include tectonic structures such as wrinkle ridges and lobate scarps (delineating a basin-like depression in the central mapping area), remnant erosional buttes in the northwestern portion of the mapping area (i.e. towards Chryse Planitia), craters and their ejecta blankets, and fields of eolian bedforms and secondary craters.

At the time of writing, the mapping is in its final stage, but some contacts still need to be refined. Overall, the mapping confirms previous geologic analyses. However, some features (e.g., contractional structures, channels, possible sapping landforms) need further attention as the may provide important constraints on the tectonic and aqueous evolution of the ExoMars landing area. A comparison to a distant, but geologically very similar site in Xanthe Terra, southeast of the Hypanis fan-shaped deposits, may enable testing of hypotheses raised by the geologic mapping of OP (Früh et al., LPSC 2021, #1977).

How to cite: Hauber, E., Tirsch, D., Adeli, S., Acktories, S., Steffens, S., and Nass, A.: Regional Geologic Mapping of the Oxia Planum Landing Site for the Exomars Mission, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-12178, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-12178, 2021.

Tyrrhena Terra hosts an intriguing variety of aqueously altered materials accompanied by unaltered mafic rocks. Our study region extends from the southern rim of the Isidis impact basin, including the Libya Montes region, southward to the Hellas Basin rim (Fig. 1). The NW part is dominated by lava flows from Syrtis Major that grade southwards into the TT highlands, dissected by fluvial channels and overprinted by abundant impact craters. These landforms together with lobate and fan-shaped deposits within impact craters are evidence for a variable history of erosion and deposition. Ancient phyllosilicate-rich materials have been exposed and uplifted from the subsurface, as they often occur in crater ejecta and central crater uplifts.

Our previous studies used CRISM spectral data together with CTX, HiRISE, and HRSC images as well as their derived topography data to create geomorphological maps of the southern Isidis region and Tyrrhena Terra. These datasets were used to map and characterize the types and occurrences of phyllosilicates, chlorite, opal, zeolites, carbonates, olivines, and pyroxenes and to assess the relationships between selected aqueous outcrops and surface features.

In this work, we build on these results by seeking correlations between aqueous mineral detections with our geomorphological map to assess 1) whether or not there are relationships between specific units and mineral occurrences, and 2) if there are trends across the study region in terms of mineral occurrence and abundance.

The mineralogical map originates from a study that spans not only the inter-Isidis-Hellas region, but also extends northwards to Nili Fosse and westwards to Terra Sabea. The focus of that study was on the metamorphic- and hydrothermally-related alteration history using CRISM targeted and mapping data, including hundreds of calibrated MTRDR images. These mineral detections were available to us as a mapped shape file, enabling us to assess the minerals in context with the geomorphological map. We utilized ESRI’s ArcGIS system and conducted multiple statistical queries in terms of mineral occurrence/type versus map unit in order to reveal possible trends within and across the study region.

Fe/Mg-phyllosilicates are the dominant aqueous mineral type within the study region and are more abundant in the central region compared to the proximity of either the Isidis or Hellas impact basin. Chlorites increase in abundance with distance from both impact basins, which could be an indication of hydrothermal processes from geothermal flux. The large Hellas impact event appears to have produced more varied temperatures and water chemistries, resulting in increased mineral variability near its rim.

How to cite: Tirsch, D., Voigt, J. R. C., Viviano, C. E., Bishop, J. L., Lane, M. D., Tornabene, L. L., and Loizeau, D.: Spatial Trends in Mineral Abundances across Tyrrhena Terra on Mars derived from Geomorphological and Mineralogical Mapping, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-7440, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-7440, 2021.

Earth, Mars, and Titan are the only known planetary bodies in our solar system where flowing liquids have shaped surface topography and formed extensive river networks. Fed by atmospheric precipitation and carved by fluvial erosion, these channels are observable in remote sensing data. They carry information about the interactions between the atmosphere, the hydro(carbon)sphere, and the lithosphere and allow for investigation of the conditions that had prevailed during their formation. Comparison of drainage basins, which developed in these profoundly different environments, could yield insights into the past and ongoing hydrological processes in addition to climatic, chemical, and topographic conditions of the planetary bodies. Increased computing capacities allow for building and utilization of a vast database of hydrological, climatological, and geological data as well as algorithmic evaluation of remote sensing products. Here, we propose a classification of basins from Earth, Mars, and Titan using several machine learning techniques based on their morphological characteristics, network properties, spatial homogeneity, cross-scale self-similarity, and visual properties. Constraints on climatic and geologic properties of the terrestrial basin classes will be identified, and the results of their morphology-climatic relationship extrapolated to Mars and Titan. To find out more, visit our project’s website https://www.schemata-project.com/.

How to cite: Cuřín, V., Blöcher, J., Brož, P., Markonis, Y., Masner, J., Pavlík, J., Solomonidou, A., and Šeborová, N.: Synthetic and Comparative Hydrology of Earth, Mars, and Titan, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-6498, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-6498, 2021.

MarsSI is a platform to help find and process Mars orbital data. Originaly developed in the context of the e-Mars project (2012-2017) funded by the European Research Council, it was certified in 2017 as french national Research Infrastructure by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) as part of the Planetary Surface Portal (PSUP) [2].

MarsSI client interface is a web application. The user is provided a map based interface where available products are displayed as footprints. The user can browse and select data from here. A workspace view, allows the user to better review product selection individually. This is also the view where user will be able to request dataset processing.

All MarsSI proposed pipelines are fully automated and do not require user parametrization. This allows us to keep our global catalog reasonable and have only one version of a single product at a time, that is shared between all users. To retrieve a product, the user will request a copy operation to its home directory, where it will be available for 30 days through SFTP access (the product is kept can be copied again after this).

As of 2021, MarsSI indexes and give access to the optical data (visible, multi and hyperspectral) and derived products from three missions: Mars Odyssey, Mars Express and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Our emphasis was to provide ”ready-to-use” products in regards of calibration, refinements and georeferencing. The user will be able to visualize and interpret the data in GIS or remote sensing software.

MarsSI provides access to various optical datasets for visible, multi- and hypespectral data from the various martian orbital missions over the years. We also offer multiple Digital Elevation Model (DEM) datasets. Some of them are provided from external sources (such as those provided by the HiRISE and HSRC teams). But users can also requests med- and high-resolution DEMs generated using the Ames Stereo Pipeline software that are computed on our platform using a custom developed workflow.

MarsSI is open to the world­ wide scientific community. As of december 2020, we count 215 registered users across 128 institutes. Since it is a french service, 25% of the users are from France, but we also offer data to scientists from the USA, UK, India and China.

Built upon opensource frameworks and using standardized protocols, MarsSI offers the scientific communities an easy way to process data, most notably DEMs that can be derived from CTX and HiRISE data collection.

How to cite: Volat, M., Quantin-Nataf, C., Thollot, P., and Mandon, L.: MarsSI: Martian surface data processing service, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-9694, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9694, 2021.

The Geologic Mapping of Planetary Bodies (GMAP) project Integrates partners and outputs from two projects previously funded by the EU through Horizon 2020 (UPWARDS and PLANMAP) to deliver tools and services for geological mapping of any Solar System body.  Started in 2020, GMAP is developing an infrastructure to support future European missions in developing orbital acquisition strategies, rover deployment and traverses, and human exploration programs.  Part of GMAP deals with the study of current procedures for publishing planetary maps, and the development of new ones.   Since the Apollo era, geologic maps of the Moon and bodies of the solar system have been produced and disseminated by the United Stated Geologic Survey, Astrogeology Program, funded by NASA.  Being both USGS and NASA governmental organization of the same country, the coordination and the production of planetary maps followed a straightforward development from the beginning to the digital-era.  In their digital form, the US maps have been made available under the public domain.
At the international level, every country has its own space agency or office but no public domain planetary maps have been systematically made available yet in re-usable formats outside the US. In Europe, space programs can be either promoted by European Space Agency or by any one of the participating states' space agencies, which is not necessarily an EU member. This is not ideal for a coordinated work for geoscientific mapping or dissemination of unified planetary mapping products.
Within GMAP we are surveying existing licensing models, looking for a licensing system that guarantees dissemination and the re-use of planetary mapping, the maximum compatibility with the existing dataset and protects original creator rights.   We will report the status of our study and plans for the future.

How to cite: Frigeri, A., Rossi, A. P., Nass, A., and Massironi, M.: A licensing system for planetary geospatial data for the GMAP project, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-2203, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-2203, 2021.

The aim of this contribution is to summarize recent activities in the field of Planetary Cartography by highlighting current issues the community is facing, and by discussing future research and development opportunities.

For this contribution we focus on (1) identifying and prioritizing needs of the planetary cartography community and the possible projected timeline to address these needs, (2) updating on ongoing work and activities in the field of planetary cartography across the globe, and (3) identifying areas of evolving technologies and innovations that could become interesting for the community in the planetary mapping sciences. The topics and discussion presented here also summarize outcome from community discussions and activities over the last years (e.g. [1-10]), and continue the initial discussion we have had during the last successful EGU session on Planetary Cartography and GIS in 2020.

In particular we would like to extend our discussion and put additional emphasis on aspects of map data re-use and research data management as well as on geodetic aspects of irregular bodies that will be target of future mission programs. We would like to invite cartographers, researchers and map-enthusiasts to join this community and to start thinking about how we can jointly solve some of these challenges.

[1] Di, K. et al (2020) Topographic mapping of the Moon in the 21th century: From hectometer to millimeter scales. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLIII-B3-2020, doi:10.5194/isprs-archives-XLIII-B3-2020-1117-2020.
[2] Hargitai, H. et al (2019) Chinese and Russian Language Equivalents of the IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: an Overview of Planetary Toponym Localization Methods, The Cartographic Journal, 56:4, 335-354, doi:10.1179/1743277413Y.0000000051.
[3] Laura, J.R. et al (2017) Towards a planetary spatial data infrastructure. ISPRS Journal of Geo-Information 6, 181.
[4] Naß, A. et al (2019) Status and future developments in planetary cartography
and mapping. In: Wu et. al. (ed.) Planetary Remote Sensing and Mapping, Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-1-138-58415-0.
[5] Naß, A. et al (2020), GMAP Standard definition Document, 1st iteration, Europlanet H2024-RI deliverable, available at https://www.europlanet-gmap.eu/about-gmap/deliverables/.
[6] Naß, A. et al (submitted) Facilitating Reuse of Planetary Spatial Research Data – Conceptualizing an Open Map Repository as Part of a Planetary Research Data Infrastructure. Planetary and Space Science.
[7] Paganelli, F. et al (2020) The Need for Recommendations in Support of Planetary Bodies Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements Standards, submitted to the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey White Paper 2023-2032.
[8] Radebaugh, J. et al (2020) Maximizing the Value of Solar System Data through Planetary Spatial Data Infrastructures, white paper submitted to the 2023–2032 Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey.
[9] Semenzato, A. et al (2020) An Integrated Geologic Map of the Rembrandt Basin, on Mercury, as a Starting Point for Stratigraphic Analysis. Remote Sensing, 12(19), p.3213.
[10] Skinner, J.A. Jr. et al (2019) Planetary geologic mapping—program status and future needs. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2019–1012, 40 p., doi:10.3133/ofr20191012.

How to cite: Nass, A., van Gasselt, S., Frigeri, A., Rossi, A. P., and Galluzzi, V.: Planetary Cartography: Challenges for Mapping and Research Data Management, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-14122, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-14122, 2021.