Martian Mantle Heat Flow Estimate From the Lack of Lithospheric Flexure in the South Pole of Mars: Implications for Planetary Evolution and Basal Melting

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Ojha, Lujendra, Karimi, Saman, Buffo, Jacob, Nerozzi, Stefano, Holt, John W., Smrekar, Sue, Chevrier, Vincent
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: American Geophysical Union 2021
• Subjects: brine; flexure; heatflow; lakes; lithosphere; Mars; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl091409

Heat flow measurements are important for our understanding of planetary interior composition, structure, and evolution. In the absence of direct measurement, a firstâ€order estimate of a planet's interior heat flow can be made by modeling the lithosphere's viscoelastic response to stress exerted by large surface loads. Here, we model the Martian lithosphere's viscoelastic response to the south polar layered deposits and estimate the local mantle heat flow to be less than ∼10 mW/m². Combined with our previous estimate of the low mantle heat flow from the north polar region (∼7 mW/m²), our results suggest that the Martian mantle may be globally depleted in heatâ€producing elements. The relatively low mantle heat flow has significant implications for Mars' longâ€term thermal evolution and on the possibility of basal melting in the south polar region. © 2020 American Geophysical Union. Issue Online: 18 January 2021; Version of Record online: 18 January 2021; Accepted manuscript online: 14 December 2020; Manuscript accepted: 08 December 2020; Manuscript revised: 05 December 2020; Manuscript received: 26 October 2020. The authors are grateful to Dr. Steven Hauck II for his assistance with the computational facilities. The authors also thank Michael Sori and an anonymous reviewer whose comments helped improve and clarify this manuscript. Data Availability Statement: The radar data used in this work may be obtained from NASA PDS website at https://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/mro/sharad.htm. The flexure profiles may be obtained from the corresponding author. Published - 2020GL091409.pdf Supplemental Material - 2020gl091409-sup-0001-text_si-s01.docx