Texan torrent serves as Martian model

Nature : In July 2002 so much rain fell in the catchment area of the Guadalupe River in Texas Hill Country that the river overtopped a reservoir, carried water gushing through the river valley at 1450 m ³/s, and carved a canyon out of the limestone bedrock as wide and as deep as a swimming pool. Michael Lamb of Caltech and Mark Fonstad of Texas State University in San Marcos have studied the Guadalupe valley before and after the flood and compared what they found to the surface of Mars. At issue is the extent to which Martian features were eroded either gradually or abruptly in a Texas-style flood.