Water on Mars, With a Grain of Salt: Local Heat Anomalies Are Required for Basal Melting of Ice at the South Pole Today
Recent analysis of radar data from the Mars Express spacecraft has interpreted bright subsurface radar reflections as indicators of local liquid water at the base of the south polar layered deposits (SPLD). However, the physical and geological conditions required to produce melting at this location...
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10150/633584 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018gl080985 |
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ftunivarizona:oai:repository.arizona.edu:10150/633584 2023-05-15T18:22:47+02:00 Water on Mars, With a Grain of Salt: Local Heat Anomalies Are Required for Basal Melting of Ice at the South Pole Today Sori, Michael M. Bramson, Ali M. Univ Arizona, Lunar & Planetary Lab 2019-02-12 http://hdl.handle.net/10150/633584 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018gl080985 en eng AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2018GL080985 Sori, M. M., & Bramson, A. M. ( 2019). Water on Mars, with a grain of salt: Local heat anomalies are required for basal melting of ice at the south pole today. Geophysical Research Letters, 46, 1222– 1231. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080985 0094-8276 1944-8007 doi:10.1029/2018gl080985 http://hdl.handle.net/10150/633584 GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS ©2019. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. 46 3 1222-1231 Article 2019 ftunivarizona https://doi.org/10.1029/2018gl080985 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080985 2020-06-14T08:17:42Z Recent analysis of radar data from the Mars Express spacecraft has interpreted bright subsurface radar reflections as indicators of local liquid water at the base of the south polar layered deposits (SPLD). However, the physical and geological conditions required to produce melting at this location were not quantified. Here we use thermophysical models to constrain parameters necessary to generate liquid water beneath the SPLD. We show that no concentration of salt is sufficient to melt ice at the base of the SPLD in the present day under typical Martian conditions. Instead, a local enhancement in the geothermal heat flux of >72 mW/m(2) is required, even under the most favorable compositional considerations. This heat flow is most simply achieved via the presence of a subsurface magma chamber emplaced 100 s of kyr ago. Thus, if the liquid water interpretation of the observations is correct, magmatism on Mars may have been active extremely recently. 6 month embargo; published online: 12 February 2019 This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu. Article in Journal/Newspaper South pole The University of Arizona: UA Campus Repository South Pole Geophysical Research Letters 46 3 1222 1231 |
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The University of Arizona: UA Campus Repository |
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ftunivarizona |
language |
English |
description |
Recent analysis of radar data from the Mars Express spacecraft has interpreted bright subsurface radar reflections as indicators of local liquid water at the base of the south polar layered deposits (SPLD). However, the physical and geological conditions required to produce melting at this location were not quantified. Here we use thermophysical models to constrain parameters necessary to generate liquid water beneath the SPLD. We show that no concentration of salt is sufficient to melt ice at the base of the SPLD in the present day under typical Martian conditions. Instead, a local enhancement in the geothermal heat flux of >72 mW/m(2) is required, even under the most favorable compositional considerations. This heat flow is most simply achieved via the presence of a subsurface magma chamber emplaced 100 s of kyr ago. Thus, if the liquid water interpretation of the observations is correct, magmatism on Mars may have been active extremely recently. 6 month embargo; published online: 12 February 2019 This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu. |
author2 |
Univ Arizona, Lunar & Planetary Lab |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sori, Michael M. Bramson, Ali M. |
spellingShingle |
Sori, Michael M. Bramson, Ali M. Water on Mars, With a Grain of Salt: Local Heat Anomalies Are Required for Basal Melting of Ice at the South Pole Today |
author_facet |
Sori, Michael M. Bramson, Ali M. |
author_sort |
Sori, Michael M. |
title |
Water on Mars, With a Grain of Salt: Local Heat Anomalies Are Required for Basal Melting of Ice at the South Pole Today |
title_short |
Water on Mars, With a Grain of Salt: Local Heat Anomalies Are Required for Basal Melting of Ice at the South Pole Today |
title_full |
Water on Mars, With a Grain of Salt: Local Heat Anomalies Are Required for Basal Melting of Ice at the South Pole Today |
title_fullStr |
Water on Mars, With a Grain of Salt: Local Heat Anomalies Are Required for Basal Melting of Ice at the South Pole Today |
title_full_unstemmed |
Water on Mars, With a Grain of Salt: Local Heat Anomalies Are Required for Basal Melting of Ice at the South Pole Today |
title_sort |
water on mars, with a grain of salt: local heat anomalies are required for basal melting of ice at the south pole today |
publisher |
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10150/633584 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018gl080985 |
geographic |
South Pole |
geographic_facet |
South Pole |
genre |
South pole |
genre_facet |
South pole |
op_source |
46 3 1222-1231 |
op_relation |
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2018GL080985 Sori, M. M., & Bramson, A. M. ( 2019). Water on Mars, with a grain of salt: Local heat anomalies are required for basal melting of ice at the south pole today. Geophysical Research Letters, 46, 1222– 1231. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080985 0094-8276 1944-8007 doi:10.1029/2018gl080985 http://hdl.handle.net/10150/633584 GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS |
op_rights |
©2019. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2018gl080985 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080985 |
container_title |
Geophysical Research Letters |
container_volume |
46 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
1222 |
op_container_end_page |
1231 |
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1766202201546424320 |