Hoyle's ice age origin: Application to Mars

If we assume that the Martian outflow channels are result of sporadic melting of ground ice, their planet-wide distribution could imply that a sheet of ice once covered Mars. This ice sheet could have acted, in a similar manner as Hoyle's oceanic meteoric dust suspension layer model as an initiator of a Martian ice age which would be responsible for the decline of valley network formation at the end of the heavy bombardment period.