Water on Mars University of Texas at Austin火星上的水德克萨斯大学奥斯丁.pptVIP

Water on Mars Haren Patel Things you might learn When/where the water was Evidence for it Ramifications of it Counters What I think Timeline /elements/e2_3/e2_3_art_mcsween.pdf Water in the Distant Past Distant past for this purpose is greater than 3.5 billion years ago It is hypothesized that up to 1/3 of Mars was covered by an ocean These oceans would have had many inlet channels of rivers and lakes feeding into the ocean Evidence Valleys eroded away by river flow appear in the northern hemisphere Areas in the northern hemisphere have patterns consistent with shorelines Impact studies further confirms the existence of an ocean due to few craters in areas where oceans are hypothesized to have existed The Not so distant past Since 3.5 billion years ago Almost no liquid water Most current water is in the form of ice and vapor Although none of the water is in the liquid form, there is a significant amount that has shaped the geography Ice is stable in the latitudes greater than ± 50-60° As ice cools and heats, a polygonal fracture pattern forms over millions of years of repeated expansion/contraction Ice layers allow solute particles to be frozen in place As the ice sublimates the particles are exposed which give distinct erosion patterns /~meech/a740/2004/fall/papers/jakosky_2004.pdf The Milankovitch cycles that occur on Mars are much more extreme, varying the tilt from 10-40° The large changes in tilt lead to large variations in the “seasons” that affect the stability of water in different regions of the planet The cycles of heating and cooling is what led to the ability of the honeycombing features This cycling would allow ice from the polar regions to sublimate and move towards the equator before re-adsorbing into the soil As the water went deeper into the soil, the less soluble particles in the water would be left closer to the surface and more soluble particles would travel farther down The very recent There is still measureable amounts of water on Mars