Mars as analogue of terrestrial planets and exoplanets: a methodological approach based on geological, geophysical, and astrophysical principles

Rapid and continuous scientific and technological breakthroughs in space exploration allowed the scientific community to look in ever growing detail at the objects within the Solar System and beyond. The huge amount of data collected by multiple Earth-based and space missions allowed geoscientists to recognize an enormous variety of geological features shaping the surface of major and minor rocky bodies. Despite the increasing number of missions and experiments, tectonic and geodynamic investigations on planetary bodies mainly rely on indirect, orbital data. Such studies usually use methodologies developed and successfully applied to unravel the geotectonic setting of key terrestrial regions where access for direct investigations can be difficult for multiple reasons. In addition to the variety of objects within our Solar System, space exploration also focussed on planets belonging to other planetary systems: the exoplanets. The interest in distant alien words has grown exponentially and to date (winter 2023) more than 5000 exoplanets have been confirmed representing multiple categories, some similar and some very different to the terrestrial and gaseous planets of the Solar System. Ever more advanced astrophysical experiments have been planned to better frame exoplanets and to directly observe them. Although direct observation is very challenging and to date we are not able to produce images of their surfaces, exoplanets are studied by applying different experimental techniques that provide fundamental data for geological investigations. The PhD research presented in this thesis has been focussed on developing an original workflow that included the combination of methodologies and approaches usually used in Planetary Sciences. The developed workflow is aimed at providing fundamental geological insights to unravel the tectonic processes that rocky planets/exoplanets could experience during their evolution. Assessing the tectonic processes that affect or have affected planets/exoplanets is crucial to better understand their origin, evolution, and present-day setting, including the possible development of life. The project has been carried out in a strong multidisciplinary context in which geological, geophysical, and astrophysical principles have been combined to improve the used methods and the reliability of the results. The developed workflow includes the combination of i) classical geological methods (e.g. remote sensing and structural mapping with kinematic numerical modelling); ii) analytical approaches (e.g. clustering analysis, manual and automatic lineament domain analysis), and iii) measurements of the latitudinal variation of the concentration of molecules in planetary atmospheres (CO2). The original combination of these methodologies has been applied to Mars, considered a good analogue within the Solar System to rocky planets/exoplanets for investigating the geodynamics of crustal processes. In particular, the investigated methodologies have been tested and applied in the Claritas Fossae, a tectonically controlled region where different tectonic settings have been proposed to explain the complex present day setting.