Earthlike Mars? Options

[glennwsmith]

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.

[marsbug]

An small impact could do a good job of mixing dark rock and dust with ice....ok like I said it's my pet idea this month!

But, with regards to the presence of a frozen northern ocean, wouldn't a census of small craters churning up ice be a nice cheap way to map ice distrubutions at depths greater than a meter? I assume that's beyond the limits of current techniques or the ice turned up at these craters wouldn't have been a surprise! A job for someone with patience who doesn't mind combing HIRISE images of mars I think, with some follow up by CRISM to confirm that it is ice not just light toned soil .