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]

A press release from Prof Vincent Chevrier (who's been known to hang out on BAUTforum and answer questions on the Phoenix mission), whose university of Arkansas group do a lot of work simulating conditions on mars.

[serpens]

Thanks for posting the link Marsbug, it has all been very quiet on the Phoenix results analysis front. But there is a gap between between 'potential' to exist and 'do' exist. The article doesn't make clear whether the Mg perchlorate brine was introduced to the experiment, or if it formed naturally from ice deposits in the in the simulated martian environment of pressure / temperature / atmospheric composition and regolith. As Vincent has rightly pointed out elsewhere, the contentious 'droplets' on the lander legs do not prove the existence of brines on Mars, but are (whatever they may be) the result of the alien environment created by the landing and operation of Phoenix. Introduction of a formed brine to an experiment has the same caveat and the use of 'potential' in the article could reflect Vincent's normal and laudable, conservative approach. The TECP results did not provide any evidence of the development of films or brines. That doesn't mean they are not there - but it does reduce the likelihood.