Icy Islands reveal similar volatile behavior on Pluto and Mars

Ice deposits on planetary surfaces may hold paleoclimate records and elucidate important geologic processes involving volatiles, atmospheres, topography, and climate. Sputnik Planitia on Pluto and the well-studied north and south polar layered deposits (NPLD and SPLD) of Mars are examples. Ice peripheral to these main deposits may be even more sensitive to climatic changes. At northern martian latitudes, 18 outlying H2O ice mounds have previously been mapped within impact craters (Fig. 1a) near the NPLD. Here, we use remote sensing observations from New Horizons and Mars orbital spacecraft to study similar features in craters near Sputnik Planitia and the SPLD. We identify tens of outlying topographic mounds in craters near the SPLD (Fig. 1b) and five bright albedo features in craters near Sputnik Planitia (Fig. 1c). We assess the possibility that these deposits are analogous to the H2O ice mounds at northern martian polar latitudes. The southern martian deposits are physically diverse, but always include convex topography and host craters >15 km in diameter. We interpret at least some of them to be composed of H2O ice like their northern counterparts. The five features on Pluto are located in similarly sized craters and have corresponding spectral detections of N2 ice. One (Fig. 1c) has topography very similar to martian ice mounds, including a convex shape up to 160 m thick. We conclude it is an N2 ice mound, equivalent to Mars' H2O ice mounds in that crater topography provides a favorable microclimate for volatiles. The mound may preserve a paleoclimate record that would be erased in Sputnik Planitia by convection. Using a finite element model, we estimate flow velocities of this N2 ice mound to be 1 cm/yr, implying it may be younger than the other four which could have topography subdued by viscous relaxation. We compare the properties and possible formation mechanisms of these features to test the hypothesis that Pluto's ice cycle is similar to Mars' in certain periods of its orbital history. Figure 1. THEMIS images of ice mounds in the martian craters (a) Louth and (b) Deseado near the NPLD and SPLD, with extracted MOLA topographic profiles. (c) New Horizons base map of the five outlying volatile deposits in craters on Pluto, with extracted topographic profile from crater 3 and corresponding ice flow simulation.