The Ice-Covered Lakes Hypothesis in Gale Crater: Implications for the Early Hesperian Climate

Recent geological discoveries from the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), including stream and lake sedimentary deposits, provide evidence that Gale crater may have intermittently hosted a fluviol-acustine environment during the Hesperian, with individual lakes lasting for a period of tens to hundreds o...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bristow, Thomas F., Kling, Alexandre M., Haberle, Robert M., Rivera-Hernandez, Frances, McKay, Christopher P.
Format: Other/Unknown Material
Language:unknown
Published: 2017
Subjects:
Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration
Antarctic
The Antarctic
Antarc*
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20170000745
Description
Summary:Recent geological discoveries from the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), including stream and lake sedimentary deposits, provide evidence that Gale crater may have intermittently hosted a fluviol-acustine environment during the Hesperian, with individual lakes lasting for a period of tens to hundreds of thousands of years. Estimates of the CO2 content of the atmosphere at the time the Gale sediments formed are far less than needed by any climate model to warm early Mars, given the low solar energy input available at Mars 3.5 Gya. We have therefore explored the possibility that the lakes in Gale during the Hesperian were perennially covered with ice using the Antarctic lakes as analogs.

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