Todd and Hale Rivers

Designation: 
Australia-NT_S-Todd_Hale
Location: 
LatitudeLongitude
-24.666667°
135.500000°
Locality and ownership: 
From MacDonnell Ranges and into Lake Eyre Basin. Mainly pastoral lease but some areas may be Aboriginal owned.
Access: 
Stuart Highway crosses the Todd River which flows through Alice Springs, so access locally very good. More remote areas will require 4WD access.
Local contacts: 
Nearest services: 
Alice Springs
Risks: 
Likely to be similar to other areas of inland Australia. Main medical facilities will be at Alice Springs. Risks are probably low to high, depending on distance and access.
Terrain: 
river system
General: 
The Todd River and its tributaries such as the Ross and Hale Rivers rise in the MacDonnell Ranges and terminate in dunefields of the Simpson Desert because of infiltration and evaporation. In additional to normal episodic floods, these river systems show signs of catastrophic flooding. These catastrophic but random events (they occur on the order of several centuries to millennia apart) incise the main channels which are then modified and infilled by more normal fluival processes.
Climate: 
Mean rainfall 274 mm, summer diurnal temperature range 20.7-35.4 degrees, winter diurnal temperature range 5.1-19.4 degrees. Nearest BOM Weather Station: Alice Springs.
Flora and fauna: 
Vegetation variable, from savanna woodland and hill slopes in the MacDonnell ranges to spinifex country in the Simpson Desert.
History: 
Area extensively studied by Mary Bourke in 1990's.
Analogue value: 
The Todd River and its tributaries have been used as analogues for channels in the Libya Montes region of Mars. As the only area in Australia specifically used as a Martian analogue the scientific value of the area is high. Other analogue areas are unknown, although it is likely to provide suitable testing sites for analogue rover vehicles in areas of fluvial erosion and deposition and sand dunes. Vegetation may be dense for good visual analogues, but such areas may be possible with good site selection.
References: 
  1. Bourke, M. C. Home page. http://www.nasm.edu/ceps/staff/mbourke.htm contains useful biographic and bibliographic information, plus images and downloadable abstracts from the Lunar and Planetary Science conferences.
  2. Bourke, M. C. (1994) Cyclical Construction and Destruction of Flood Dominated Semiarid Central Australia. In Olive, L. J., Loughlan, R. and Kesby, J. A. (Eds). Variability in Stream Erosion and Sediment Transport, IAHS, Publ 224, p 113-23. Main published source to date on Mary's research in the area.
  3. Bourke, M. C. 1998. Fluvial geomorphology and paleofloods in arid central Australia / Mary C.A. Bourke. PhD Thesis, Australian National University (unpublished). The main source of Mary's work on the Hale and Todd River systems.
  4. Bourke M.C. and Zimbelman J.R. (1999) Australian Paleoflood Systems: A New Earth for Martian Channels. 30th Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference. A paper comparing the Todd River Flood plain to the Libya Montes region of Mars.
  5. Bourke M.C. and Zimbelman J.R. (2000) Australian Paleoflood Systems: An Analogue for Martian Channel Systems. 31st Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference. A paper comparing the Hale River Flood plain to the Libya Montes region of Mars.
Map reference: 
Alice Springs, Rodinga, Hale River, and Illogwa Creek 1; 250,000 topographic and geological map sheets.