Chloe Roque

Chloe Roque

Biography

Chloe Roque is a senior mathematics major with a physics minor at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. Originally from Houston, she developed a passion for mathematics and space exploration, inspired by NASA and women in STEM. Her research interests span computational mathematics, planetary science, and aerospace applications. Chloe has conducted atmospheric physics research using NASA AERONET and Pandora data, mathematics research on interpretability in text-to-image diffusion models, and participated in the MIT Summer Research Program under Dr. Gaia Stucky de Quay, investigating controls on overflow in ancient Martian lake basins. She also interned at Valkyrie Intelligence, developing data-driven solutions for nonprofit initiatives. Chloe is passionate about science communication and expanding STEM access through mentorship and outreach. She founded and serves as president of Women in STEM at St. Edward’s University and plans to pursue doctoral studies in mathematical and computational methods for aerospace engineering and planetary science.

Investigating the Controls on Overflow in Ancient Martian Lake Basins
Chloe Roque¹ and Gaia Stucky de Quay^2
1Department of Mathematics, St. Edward’s University
²Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ancient Martian lake basins preserve evidence of past surface water and provide insight into the planet’s climate history. While some lake basins overflowed to form open-basin lakes (OBLs) —such as Perseverance Rover’s Jezero crater — others remained closed-basin lakes (CBLs). However, the processes controlling this transition remain uncertain. One proposed explanation is that OBLs experienced a wetter climate, with more runoff leading to greater water accumulation. To investigate this hypothesis, we used the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) digital elevation models (DEMs), THEMIS infrared imagery, and previously developed erosion datasets and lake maps to compare drainage-network concavity, average eroded depth, spill depth, watershed-to-lake area ratio, and basin geometry between OBLs and CBLs. Basin geometry clearly separated the two populations, with OBLs generally exhibiting larger watershed-to-lake area ratios. In contrast, drainage-network concavity and average eroded depth showed substantial overlap, suggesting limited evidence that enhanced runoff alone explains overflow. An optimized precipitationthres hold analysis further showed that basin geometry distinguished most OBLs and CBLs, supporting the conclusion that basin geometry, rather than climate alone, controlled lake overflow. These results provide new insight into the hydrologic evolution of ancient Martian lakes and may help identify promising targets for future exploration.