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.

[imipak]

Luo and Serpinski, "Computer-generated global map of valley networks on Mars" in JGR-Planets (Abstract) is picking up a fair amount of coverage. (e.g., ScienceDaily, Universe Today.) The visualisations look plausible to this layperson; can anyone comment on the methodology?

A new computer-generated map of the Red Planet provides a more detailed look at the valley networks on Mars, and indicates the networks are more than twice as extensive as had been previously depicted in the only other planet-wide map of the valleys. "All the evidence gathered by analyzing the valley network on the new map points to a particular climate scenario on early Mars," said Wei Luo, from Northern Illinois University (NIU). "It would have included rainfall and the existence of an ocean covering most of the northern hemisphere, or about one-third of the planet's surface."