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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May 6 2009, 04:45 AM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 233 Joined: 21-April 05 Member No.: 328 |
Relative to the current discussion, check out this picture of the Rembrandt impact basin on Mercury:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090504.html This "mare" is clearly, to me, the result of lava flows -- and my money is still on actual H2O, though now frozen, forming the smooth surface of the northern Mars basin. And as has just been pointed out, correctly I believe, there is no contradiction between an impact basin and a subsequent sea. |
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