Generation of recent massive water floods at Cerberus
Fossae, Mars by dike emplacement, cryospheric cracking, and
confined aquifer groundwater release

Authors:
James W. Head, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island;
Lionel Wilson, Karl L. Mitchell, Lancaster University, Lancaster,
United Kingdom.

Source: Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) paper
10.1029/2003

Highly pressurized water spurting from troughs created by volcanic
eruptions may have caused the unusual surface features observed
on the Cerberus Plains of Mars. Head et al. analyzed the seemingly
water-carved channels of Athabasca Valles and suggest that
fast-moving water escaping from surface cracks in the past 20
million years can explain the loose rock formations and the
dappled structure in the now-frozen terrestrial surface. Previous
research had suggested that pressurized subsurface water, possibly
raised by regional tectonic movement, could have lead to floods
that formed the shapes seen in the Valles and Fossae regions. The
authors' model simulated the surface effects from volcanic dikes
and found that such activity could produce fractures and cracking
capable of releasing groundwater confined beneath the cryosphere
[permanently frozen surface] at speeds unprecedented on Earth.

Dr. Head and his team make no mention of liquid CO2 flows..

BD