Author ORCID Identifier:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7061-1443

Date of Graduation

12-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Geosciences (PhD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Geosciences

Advisor/Mentor

Shaw, John

Committee Member

McGilvery, Mac

Second Committee Member

Palucis, Marisa

Third Committee Member

Covington, Matt

Keywords

Backwater; Deltas; Mars; Morphodynamics; Northern Ocean; Rivers

Abstract

Geologic evidence indicates that liquid water once flowed in abundance across the martian surface. For this reason, in the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life, Mars represents a prime target for scientific inquiry. River systems encode climatic and environmental signals in their deposits on Earth and Mars, often in fan-shaped landforms (e.g., alluvial fans, river deltas, etc.). Distal fan-shaped deposits (i.e., river deltas), in particular, act as a relatively high-fidelity record of dynamic geologic processes. As such, NASA frequently sends rovers to locations on Mars’ surface with hypothesized river deltas (e.g., Perseverance and Jezero crater). Problematically, there are many different fan-shaped deposits, and they form under vastly different environmental conditions. They exist from arid and desolate alluvial fans, to inundated and ecologically rich river deltas. Discerning the disparate depositional environments of fan-shaped landforms on Mars has been a continuous challenge for the scientific community. Here, I present a combination of remote sensing and field-based studies of river delta deposits with the expressed intention of providing new diagnostic methods for determining the formative environment of a fan-shaped deposit on the surface of Mars and beyond. To establish a comparative framework, I test for evidence of backwater influence in martian and terrestrial fan-shaped deposits. Backwater influence refers to hydrodynamic (fluid flow) and morphodynamic (landscape and sedimentary response) adjustments in rivers near the coastline as they approach a standing body of water, like a lake or an ocean, which “pushes” back against the river’s flowing water. In doing so, I develop a suite of remote sensing and field-based methods for determining the depositional environment of a fan-shaped landform. The results of this work provide new approaches for paleo-geographic, paleo-climatic, and paleo-hydrologic reconstruction on all planetary bodies with hydrologic cycles and fluvial systems.

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