Possible freeze/thaw landforms on Martian slopes: Using Svalbard Advent valley as an analogue to Mars

Stripes and gelifluction lobes are common slope features in polar regions on Earth where freeze and thaw processes occur. Mars is currently a cold and barren planet with its water resources locked up as ice caps and ice-rich permafrost. However, features resembling stripes and gelifluction lobes have been observed on high-latitude slopes on Mars and in most, but not all, cases in close proximity to gullies. Stripe width typically ranges from ~50 cm to 1.5 m, and their orientation is consistently down slope, although it can not be excluded that it sometimes slightly deviates from the steepest topographic gradient. Lobes are found on steep inner crater walls and display similar dimensions as terrestrial gelifluction lobes. These observations may point to a late phase in Mars history with transient melt water in local niches. In our study we have examined sorted and non-sorted stripes as well as gelifluction lobes on slopes in Svalbard in order to test the working hypothesis of a freeze and thaw origin of the Martian landforms.