KOKIN OSIP

PhD student: Osip Kokin   Supervisor: Prof. Monica Pondrelli, Prof. Lucia Marinangeli

Debris-covered glaciers on Mars, known as Viscous Flow Features (VFFs), are ice-rich landforms in the mid-latitudes and key targets for future exploration. Their debris cover, however, makes them difficult to study, and their relationship to the surrounding topography remains poorly understood.

This PhD project investigates whether the extent of VFFs is climatically controlled, using a regional transect in Arabia Terra. The work involves a detailed morphometric analysis of over 1000 topographic profiles derived from MOLA and HRSC-MOLA DEMs, classifying landforms into three morphological types (LDA, LVF, CCF) and separating topographic from climatic effects.

Fieldwork on debris-covered glaciers in the Italian Alps demonstrated that only the original top surfaces of the sediment cover overlying the glacier, which are not disturbed by ablation processes, can be considered as analogous to VFFs.

The project results contribute to defining geological constraints for future exploration and infrastructure, supporting the ArchiSpace project.