Earthlike Mars? |
Earthlike Mars? |
Apr 1 2009, 02:28 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 233 Joined: 21-April 05 Member No.: 328 |
All, I know this isn't the right place for this post, but I've looked around and can't find an appropriate, current UMSF forum (Doug, perhaps you could give me some guidance on establishing such) -- so here goes: I think a [the] new paradigm for Martian geology is rapidly coalescing, namely, that Mars is very much like the Earth in terms of the preponderance of water -- except that it is all frozen, and covered under a thin layer of dust/regolith! See, for example, this article:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/41995902.html Hence the "seepages" found in crater walls; hence the evidence of catastophic flooding -- the result of volcanism melting huge pockets of ice. And I am going to add my own wrinkle (probably not original): that the differentiation of Mars into a rougher southern hemisphere and smoother northern hemsphere represents something like Earth's Pangea stage, ie, the northern hemisphere is a vast frozen sea covered with a thin layer of ice. |
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Apr 2 2009, 01:39 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 258 Joined: 22-December 06 Member No.: 1503 |
Was it really ever an uber continent at all? Perhaps it is merely a remnant of the original ancient crust before Mars got hit by a HUGE dwarf sized planetary object. The idea is that Mars was struck similar to how the Earth was smashed early in its history (the Mars sized object that created the Moon). In this respect, perhaps Mars is similar to Earth.
Did a larger Moon on Mars once exist, then smashed into Mars again later in its history? That possibility of a second event could give us a false date concerning early bombardment (assumed to be 3.8 billion years ago because of the Apollo rock dating). Mars is not the Moon. It is possible that there was more than one extreme event and the evidence is mounting that this may have occurred, but it is still not convincing. Occam’s razor still suggests the more simple solution. I’m keeping my mind open because there is still so much that we don’t know about Mars. Answers won’t come as quickly as we might want. But look at the speculation of frozen water on Mars! It has taken almost 30 years for it to now become established fact. Just a few years ago, I was almost laughed at because of my suggestion there might have been large numbers of glaciers on Mars at one time. Few are laughing at that idea now. |
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