The Importance of Lake Overflow Floods for Early Martian Landscape Evolution: Insights From Licus Vallis

Abstract: Open-basin lake outlet valleys are incised when water breaches the basin-confining topography and overflows. Outlet valleys record this flooding event and provide insight into how the lake and surrounding terrain evolved over time. Here we present a study of the paleolake outlet Licus Vallis, a >350 km long, >2 km wide, >100 m deep valley that heads at the outlet breach of an approx.30 km diameter impact crater. Multiple geomorphic features of this valley system suggest it records a more comp…