Ancient Ocean that covered 1/3 of Mars with Water, A new study conducted by University of Colorado at Boulder scientists. |
Ancient Ocean that covered 1/3 of Mars with Water, A new study conducted by University of Colorado at Boulder scientists. |
Guest_Bobby_* |
Jun 15 2010, 12:33 AM
Post
#1
|
Guests |
I found this article about Mars being covered with Water and found it interesting.
June 13, 2010 Here is the article: http://www.colorado.edu/news/r/f9b2e812247...b0735f7098.html |
|
|
Oct 21 2010, 02:21 PM
Post
#2
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 202 Joined: 9-September 08 Member No.: 4334 |
If Mars ever had an Earth-density atmosphere, though, it would have had far more CO2 and thus a stronger greenhouse effect. Earth's atmosphere is unstable, maintained that way by life. Before plants, Earth had much more CO2 and less O2.
|
|
|
Oct 23 2010, 07:29 PM
Post
#3
|
|
Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 59 Joined: 12-November 09 Member No.: 5039 |
If Mars ever had an Earth-density atmosphere, though, it would have had far more CO2 and thus a stronger greenhouse effect. Earth's atmosphere is unstable, maintained that way by life. Before plants, Earth had much more CO2 and less O2. I believe the gist of AndyG's post is that even thick CO2 atmosphere doesn't raise temperature enough to make liquid ocean possible. |
|
|
Oct 23 2010, 09:29 PM
Post
#4
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
even thick CO2 atmosphere doesn't raise temperature enough to make liquid ocean possible. The pressure required to maintain the liquid state doesn't have to depend on a thick atmosphere; it can come from the weight of 'sea ice'. Most of the water oceans in the solar system have such caps, but I think any ancient martian ocean would have had a much thinner cap than that of Europa or the other galileans, more like 'snowball Earth'. |
|
|
Oct 25 2010, 01:36 PM
Post
#5
|
|
Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 59 Joined: 12-November 09 Member No.: 5039 |
The pressure required to maintain the liquid state doesn't have to depend on a thick atmosphere; it can come from the weight of 'sea ice'. Most of the water oceans in the solar system have such caps, but I think any ancient martian ocean would have had a much thinner cap than that of Europa or the other galileans, more like 'snowball Earth'. Sea ice would be unstable in current Mars conditions - it would sublimate. With thicker atmosphere in the past, it looks plausible. So my mental picture needs to be corrected: ancient Mars ocean, where it was liquid, was covered by permanent thick ice cover (many meters). Over the eons, atmosphere was lost, water was partly sublimating and escaping to space and to colder, higher latitudes, and partly "escaping" to permafrost and deep underground aquifers. Surface of ex-frozen-ocean was gradually covered by dust. Bear in mind that this description of "cold Mars" is too simplistic. In 3 billion years, a lot of interesting events happened. Largish impacts. Changing tilt of the rotational axis. And first of all, volcanic eruptions and lava floods are prime candidates to make a lot of water liquid, at least for some geologically short time, but enough to cause catastrophic floods, carve river valleys, etc... |
|
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 26th September 2024 - 12:48 AM |
RULES AND GUIDELINES Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting. IMAGE COPYRIGHT |
OPINIONS AND MODERATION Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators. |
SUPPORT THE FORUM Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member. |