Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Dec 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufm.p22a0541g&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #P22A-0541
Mathematics
Logic
1655 Water Cycles (1836), 1829 Groundwater Hydrology, 5407 Atmospheres: Evolution, 5462 Polar Regions, 6225 Mars
Scientific paper
Observations of the apparently recent flow of liquid water on the surface of Mars (Malin & Edgett 2000, Science 288, 2330) demand an explanatory mechanism and suggest a more complex history for martian water. Gaidos (2001, Icarus, in press) has proposed that freezing and pressurization of deep aquifers, a consequence of planetary cooling or long-term changes in climate, results in the rapid expulsion of liquid water to the surface or into the shallow regolith where it can carve the gully-like features. In terrestrial permafrost regions, freezing and pressurization of confined aquifers creates pingos and icing outbursts. Cryohydrovolcanism, if it occurs on Mars, provides a mechanism for the transport of water from deep aquifers to the surface, and from there to the atmosphere, and polar caps. This activity may have tangible geomorphological, hydrological, and geochemical effects other than the gullies. At epochs of low obliquity, water ice erupted to the surface or into the interstitial space of the shallow crust will be unstable with respect to the polar caps and will migrate to high latitudes. During periods of high obliquity, lower insolation and higher atmospheric water vapor content may allow water erupted at lowers latitudes to persist as surface or near-surface ice for significant periods of time. The total volume of water displaced from the freezing of a global aquifer in an idealized regolith (Clifford 1993, J. Geophys. Res. 98, 10973) is comparable to that in the present polar caps. If the D/H of the reservoir is similar to that of SNC meteorites (e.g., Leshin 2000, Geophys. Res. Lett. 27, 2017) the current mean rate of water transport to the surface is sufficient to buffer atmospheric D/H at its present value against fractionating escape to space (Kass & Yung 1999, Geophys. Res. Lett. 26, 365; Donahue 2001, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98, 827). In fact, the model indicates that significant cryovolcanic activity has taken place within the past 10 kyr. Intrusion or extrusion of water and subsequent sublimation of ice may contribute to erosion and mass-wasting (especially at early epochs) or to the formation of certain types of patterned ground (Mustard et al. 2001 Nature 412, 411). Finally, cryohydrovolcanism may transport dissolved gases or solids to the surface in detectable quantities.
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