Earthlike Mars? |
Earthlike Mars? |
Apr 1 2009, 02:28 AM
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#1
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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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Nov 27 2009, 07:44 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 233 Joined: 21-April 05 Member No.: 328 |
imipak, your post has really added some fuel to the fire; so let me ask this question:
If -- as now seems likely -- there was an Oceanus Borealis, do we really have the physics to account for its subsequent "sublimation" (I know this is not the correct word) into space; or is it not more likely that -- as I believe -- much or most of this ocean lies frozen still beneath the dust of the northern plains? |
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Nov 27 2009, 09:31 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2517 Joined: 13-September 05 Member No.: 497 |
If -- as now seems likely -- there was an Oceanus Borealis, do we really have the physics to account for its subsequent "sublimation" (I know this is not the correct word) into space; or is it not more likely that -- as I believe -- much or most of this ocean lies frozen still beneath the dust of the northern plains? The likelihood that there was a lot of water on Mars at one time is old news (Mariner 9 at least) and certainly lots and lots of work has been done on the escape rate of water (see, for example, "Water loss and evolution of the upper atmosphere and exosphere over martian history", Valeille et al, in press at Icarus.) That paper concludes that "a conservative estimate of about 10 m of water is found to have escaped globally to space over the last ~3.5 Gyr." I don't think that it's very controversial at all that there could be a lot of frozen water on Mars, so I'm a little confused by your implication that this is some big revelation and/or recent news. There is a long way between "has water" and "Earthlike". -------------------- Disclaimer: This post is based on public information only. Any opinions are my own.
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