Evolution of the Martian water inventory

Details Evolution of the Martian water inventory Evolution of the Martian water inventory

Apr 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003eaeja....12500l&link_type=abstract

EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003, abstract #12500

Physics

Scientific paper

The discovery of high concentrations of water-ice just below the Martian polar surface areas by NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has strengthened the debate about the search for life on Mars. Generally it is believed that life on Earth emerged in liquid water from the processing of organic molecules. Since the possible origin of life on early Mars should have been related to the evolution of the planetary water inventory it is important to estimate the amount of water-ice below the planetary surface. High resolution altimetric data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) instrument on board of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft allowed a detailed topography of the northern Martian lowlands. There are also indications that large standing bodies of H2O ranging from lakes to an ocean may have existed in the past history of Mars. We use the observed atmospheric D/H isotope fractionation in the Martian atmosphere, measured D/H ratios in both, SNC meteorites and terrestrial seawater and new atmospheric loss simulations for the calculation of the present and early water-ice reservoir. Further, we study the efficiency of hydrodynamic escape of hydrogen from the Martian atmosphere related to a more active early Sun and chemical weathering of CO2 by assuming a warm and wet early Mars.

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