Regional Ice‐Depth and Thickness in Phlegra Montes, Mars From Radar Characterization of Glacial Landsystems Using SHARAD

Abstract Morphological analyses of Viscous Flow Features (VFFs) in the mid‐latitude regions of Mars have led to the hypothesis that these landforms are equivalent to debris‐covered glaciers. Phlegra Montes is a 1400‐km‐long mountain range in the northern mid‐latitudes that spans from 30° to 50°N, where there is an abundance of glacial landsystems thought to have a substantial amount of near‐surface ice. We identified eight VFFs that are detectable by the SHAllow RADar (SHARAD) and calculated their lag thickness, ice thickness, apparent ice depth, and volume. Phlegra Montes houses a minimum volume of ∼1.2 × 10 12 m 3 (with 8% uncertainty) of subsurface water–ice with supraglacial debris thicknesses on the order of 2–8 m across all study sites. We determine that these glaciers are composed of a material with and . We also report the first detection of a composite glacial system with undulating terraced topography detected by SHARAD. This detection consists of two subglacial terraces going from higher to lower topography. We also report the first detection of a perched or “hanging” valley glacier on the eastern flank of the mountain range.