Constraining Martian Lava Flow Eruption Rates in the Tharsis Volcanic Province

Introduction: The morphology of lava flows is controlled by eruption rate, composition, cooling rate, and topography [1,2,3]. Lava flows provide insight into the formation and evolution of volcanoes, igneous provinces, and planetary surfaces [2,4,5]. This is particularly important where compositional data is limited and historical context is nonexistent. Numerical modeling of lava flows remains challenging, but has been aided by laboratory analog experiments [6,7]. Such experiments using polyethylene glycol (PEG) 600 wax established psi (hereafter denoted by Ψ), a dimensionless parameter that relates crust formation (ts) and lateral advection (ta) timescales of a viscous gravity current.