Computer Science
Scientific paper
Sep 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008icar..197...60m&link_type=abstract
Icarus, Volume 197, Issue 1, p. 60-64.
Computer Science
3
Scientific paper
Nitrogen isotopes appear to be escaping from Mars at approximately the primordial ratio 14N/15N ≈ 275 and to have an atmospheric nitrogen depletion time scale of about 800 Myr. For the standard model of a progressive decline of an initial inventory of atmospheric nitrogen, having no source of N, the agreement of the isotopic ratio of escaping N with primitive nitrogen would be coincidental. Here we propose a steady state model in which nitrates, produced early in Mars' history, are later decomposed by the current impact flux. The detection of near-surface nitrates can discriminate between the standard and the steady state models. Based on current estimates of N loss to space, we predict a quantity of nitrates equivalent to 60 ± 30 mbars for a steady state, or a global layer of about 3 m of pure NaNO3.
Manning Curtis V.
McKay Christopher P.
Zahnle Kevin J.
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