{"id":22167,"date":"2025-11-27T10:43:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T09:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/erc-icefloods-2\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T11:26:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T10:26:57","slug":"erc-icefloods-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/en\/erc-icefloods\/","title":{"rendered":"ERC IceFloods"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"menu-erc-icefloods-container\"><ul id=\"menu-erc-icefloods\" class=\"menu\"><li id=\"menu-item-22414\" class=\"menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-22414\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/erc-icefloods\/\">ERC IceFloods<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"menu-item-22415\" class=\"menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-22415\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/actualites-erc-icefloods\/\">ERC IceFloods News<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-ad2f72ca wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\"><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/icefloods_logo_vector_3-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22091\" style=\"width:279px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/icefloods_logo_vector_3-1.png 800w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/icefloods_logo_vector_3-1-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/icefloods_logo_vector_3-1-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/icefloods_logo_vector_3-1-768x768.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>The project<strong> IceFloods<\/strong> funded by the <strong>European Research Council (ERC)<\/strong> is led by <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/member\/grau-galofre-anna\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/member\/grau-galofre-anna\/\">Anna Grau Galofr\u00e9<\/a><\/strong>, researcher for the CNRS at the\u00a0<strong>LPG<\/strong> and co-led by <a href=\"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/member\/conway-susan\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/member\/conway-susan\/\">Susan Conway<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/member\/masse-marion\/\">Marion Mass\u00e9<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-ad2f72ca wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<p> Mars is a hyperarid, global cryosphere, and likely has been for over 3 Gyr. However, during the so-called early Mars period 4-3.5 Gyr go, water flowed within thousands of valleys, in crater lakes, producing ancient deltas, building ice sheets, and possibly ponding in oceans. Surface liquid water was stable on Mars coinciding with the origin of life on Earth. However, this early benign climate collapsed with the continued loss of Mars\u2019 atmosphere in the Hesperian period, ~3.5-3 Gyr ago. Outflow channels, megacanyons among the largest erosive landforms in the Solar System, date from this time. The largest one, Kasei valles, is so vast that the volumes of water involved in its formation were an important fraction of Mars\u2019 total water amount, and its outflow could have filled an ocean . In the current view, <em><strong>Kasei Valles<\/strong><\/em> was formed by a megaflood sourced from the catastrophic release of a near-surface aquifer, building on the basis of terrestrial analogue comparisons.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-content-justification-center is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-94bc23d7 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kasei_Valles_context_pillars-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22121\" style=\"width:439px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kasei_Valles_context_pillars-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kasei_Valles_context_pillars-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kasei_Valles_context_pillars-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kasei_Valles_context_pillars-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kasei_Valles_context_pillars-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kasei_Valles_context_pillars.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-content-justification-center is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-94bc23d7 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kasei_Valles_perspective_view_pillars-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22119\" style=\"width:702px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kasei_Valles_perspective_view_pillars-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kasei_Valles_perspective_view_pillars-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kasei_Valles_perspective_view_pillars-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kasei_Valles_perspective_view_pillars-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kasei_Valles_perspective_view_pillars.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Les vall\u00e9es des <strong>Kasei<\/strong> <\/em>(credit: ESA\/DLR\/FU Berlin (G. Neukum))<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The project <strong>IceFloods<\/strong> aims to challenge this view. In this project, our team will seek to answer the question: <strong>What fluid or combination of fluid were at the origin of <em>Kasei Valles<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We will explore the current <strong>megaflood<\/strong> hypothesis but also the possibility that <em><strong>Kasei<\/strong><\/em> was an <strong>ice stream<\/strong>, a region of channelized, fast-flowing ice within an ice sheet, based on its scale, location, and geomorphology, and reinvestigate the origin of other outflow channels under this perspective. Drawing from novel <strong>fluid dynamic simulations<\/strong>, <strong>analogue field work<\/strong>, <strong>geological mapping<\/strong>, and <strong>climate modelling<\/strong>, we will test the \u2018Ice flood\u2019 hypothesis, which if correct would radically change our understanding of Mars\u2019 transitional Hesperian climate, the nature of its hydrological cycle, and the possibility of a Hesperian ocean. Outflow channels hold a key for understanding the collapse of Mars\u2019 early climate and hydrological system, the end of global conditions able to support life, and the rise of the global cryosphere that would come to dominate Mars\u2019 climate.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image wp-duotone-unset-1\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"956\" height=\"505\" src=\"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gantt_chart.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22117\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gantt_chart.png 956w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gantt_chart-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gantt_chart-768x406.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 956px) 100vw, 956px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"441\" src=\"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LOGO_ERC-FLAG_EU-1024x441.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22445\" style=\"width:426px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LOGO_ERC-FLAG_EU-1024x441.png 1024w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LOGO_ERC-FLAG_EU-300x129.png 300w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LOGO_ERC-FLAG_EU-768x331.png 768w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LOGO_ERC-FLAG_EU-1536x662.png 1536w, https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LOGO_ERC-FLAG_EU-2048x882.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The project IceFloods funded by the European Research Council (ERC) is led by Anna Grau Galofr\u00e9, researcher for the CNRS at the\u00a0LPG and co-led by Susan Conway and Marion Mass\u00e9. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":206,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"coauthors":[275],"class_list":["post-22167","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22167"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22462,"href":"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22167\/revisions\/22462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lpg-umr6112.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=22167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}