Ice Lens Formation and Frost Heave at the Phoenix Landing Site
Several lines of evidence indicate that the volume of shallow ground ice in the martian high latitudes exceeds the pore volume of the host regolith. Boynton et al. found an optimal fit to the Mars Odyssey Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS) data at the Phoenix landing site by modeling a buried layer of 50-...
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ftnasantrs:oai:casi.ntrs.nasa.gov:20110014308 2023-05-15T16:37:10+02:00 Ice Lens Formation and Frost Heave at the Phoenix Landing Site Zent, A. P. Remple, A. W. Sizemore, H. G. Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available June 13, 2011 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20110014308 unknown Document ID: 20110014308 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20110014308 Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright CASI Astronomy ARC-E-DAA-TN3362 2011 International Conference: Exploring Mars Habitability; Jun 13, 2011 - Jun 15, 2011; Lisbon; Portugal 2011 ftnasantrs 2019-08-31T23:00:18Z Several lines of evidence indicate that the volume of shallow ground ice in the martian high latitudes exceeds the pore volume of the host regolith. Boynton et al. found an optimal fit to the Mars Odyssey Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS) data at the Phoenix landing site by modeling a buried layer of 50-75% ice by mass (up to 90% ice by volume). Thermal and optical observations of recent impact craters in the northern hemisphere have revealed nearly pure ice. Ice deposits containing only 1-2% soil by volume were excavated by Phoenix. The leading hypothesis for the origin of this excess ice is that it developed in situ by a mechanism analogous to the formation of terrestrial ice lenses and needle ice. Problematically, terrestrial soil-ice segregation is driven by freeze/thaw cycling and the movement of bulk water, neither of which are expected to have occurred in the geologically recent past on Mars. If however ice lens formation is possible at temperatures less than 273 K, there are possible implications for the habitability of Mars permafrost, since the same thin films of unfrozen water that lead to ice segregation are used by terrestrial psychrophiles to metabolize and grow down to temperatures of at least 258 K. Other/Unknown Material Ice permafrost NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
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Open Polar |
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
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ftnasantrs |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Astronomy |
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Astronomy Zent, A. P. Remple, A. W. Sizemore, H. G. Ice Lens Formation and Frost Heave at the Phoenix Landing Site |
topic_facet |
Astronomy |
description |
Several lines of evidence indicate that the volume of shallow ground ice in the martian high latitudes exceeds the pore volume of the host regolith. Boynton et al. found an optimal fit to the Mars Odyssey Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS) data at the Phoenix landing site by modeling a buried layer of 50-75% ice by mass (up to 90% ice by volume). Thermal and optical observations of recent impact craters in the northern hemisphere have revealed nearly pure ice. Ice deposits containing only 1-2% soil by volume were excavated by Phoenix. The leading hypothesis for the origin of this excess ice is that it developed in situ by a mechanism analogous to the formation of terrestrial ice lenses and needle ice. Problematically, terrestrial soil-ice segregation is driven by freeze/thaw cycling and the movement of bulk water, neither of which are expected to have occurred in the geologically recent past on Mars. If however ice lens formation is possible at temperatures less than 273 K, there are possible implications for the habitability of Mars permafrost, since the same thin films of unfrozen water that lead to ice segregation are used by terrestrial psychrophiles to metabolize and grow down to temperatures of at least 258 K. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Zent, A. P. Remple, A. W. Sizemore, H. G. |
author_facet |
Zent, A. P. Remple, A. W. Sizemore, H. G. |
author_sort |
Zent, A. P. |
title |
Ice Lens Formation and Frost Heave at the Phoenix Landing Site |
title_short |
Ice Lens Formation and Frost Heave at the Phoenix Landing Site |
title_full |
Ice Lens Formation and Frost Heave at the Phoenix Landing Site |
title_fullStr |
Ice Lens Formation and Frost Heave at the Phoenix Landing Site |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ice Lens Formation and Frost Heave at the Phoenix Landing Site |
title_sort |
ice lens formation and frost heave at the phoenix landing site |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20110014308 |
op_coverage |
Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available |
genre |
Ice permafrost |
genre_facet |
Ice permafrost |
op_source |
CASI |
op_relation |
Document ID: 20110014308 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20110014308 |
op_rights |
Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright |
_version_ |
1766027469147602944 |