A Global High-Resolution Hydrological Model to Simulate the Dynamics of Surface Liquid Reservoirs: Application on Mars

Surface runoff shapes planetary landscapes, but global hydrological models often lack the resolution and flexibility to simulate dynamic surface water bodies beyond Earth. Recent studies of Mars have revealed abundant geological and mineralogical evidence for past surface water, including valley networks, crater lakes, deltas and possible ocean margins dating from late Noachian to early Hesperian times.

These features suggest that early Mars experienced periods allowing liquid water stability, runoff and sediment transport. To investigate where surface water could accumulate and how it may have been redistributed, we developed a global high-resolution (km-scale) surface hydrological model.

The model uses a pre-computed hydrological database that maps topographic depressions, their spillover points, hierarchical connections between basins, and lake volume-area-elevation relationships. This database approach greatly accelerates simulations by avoiding repeated geomorphic processing.

The model dynamically forms, grows, merges and dries lakes and putative seas without prescribing fixed coastlines, by transferring water volumes between depressions according to their storage capacities and overflow rules.

We explore model behavior over the present-day Mars’ topography measured by MOLA (Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter) topography for a range of evaporation rates (from 0.1 m/yr to 10 m/yr) and total water inventories expressed as Global Equivalent Layer (from 1 mGEL to 1000 mGEL). 48 Simulations are iterated to reach the steady state.

The model outputs the extent and depth of surface water bodies and identifies main drainage pathways using overflow fluxes as runoff indicators. Results show a transition toward a contiguous northern ocean between low (1-10 m) GEL values and increasing concentration of water in northern lowlands and major impact basins at higher GEL.

Alexandre Gauvain, François Forget, Martin Turbet, Jean-Baptiste Clément, Lucas Lange, Romain Vandemeulebrouck

Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2603.04206 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2603.04206v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.04206
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Related DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4992
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Submission history
From: Alexandre Gauvain
[v1] Wed, 4 Mar 2026 15:50:52 UTC (42,300 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.04206

Astrobiology,