Evidence, arguments, and cold-climate geomorphology that favour periglacial cycling at the Martian mid-to-high latitudes in the Late Amazonian Epoch

Absent of a humanly wielded pick and shovel digging beneath the surface, the identification of ground (interstitial) ice on Mars formed by the freeze–thaw cycling of water has largely been inferred from presumed periglacial analogues on Earth. Here, we reach beyond the looks-like therefore-must-be paradigm and seek to validate this presumption by two means: (1) Presenting diverse data sets, tools, scales (temporal and spatial), and case studies that point, collectively, to the plausibility of periglacial processes having occurred at the northern mid-latitudes of Mars through the Late Amazonian Epoch. (2) Suggesting that and showing why the litmus test of periglacial plausibility ought not to be derived from current boundary conditions on Mars or models derived therefrom. Towards these twinned ends, we draw upon an admixture of recently published and new work by this chapter’s authors.