Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Dec 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agufm.p62a0370b&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2002, abstract #P62A-0370
Mathematics
Logic
5430 Interiors (8147), 5475 Tectonics (8149), 5480 Volcanism (8450), 6225 Mars
Scientific paper
The consequences of an early epoch of plate tectonics on Mars followed by single-plate tectonics with stagnant lid mantle convection on both crust production and magnetic field generation have been studied with parameterized mantle convection models. It is difficult to find models that can reasonably explain both rapid early crust formation, as is required by geological and geophysical observations, and an early magnetic field that is widely accepted as the cause for the observed magnetic anomalies. Dating of crust provinces and topography and gravity data suggest a crust production rate monotonically declining through the Noachian and Hesperian and a present-day crust thickness of more than 50 km. Plate tectonics cools the mantle and core efficiently and the core may easily generate an early magnetic field. Given a sufficiently weak mantle rheology, plate tectonics can explain a field even if the core is not initially superheated with respect to the mantle. Because the crust production rate is proportional to temperature, however, an early efficient cooling will frustrate later crust production. Voluminous crust formation following plate tectonics is only possible if plate tectonics heat transfer is inefficient. This is possible if the mantle rheology is very stiff as for a dry Martian mantle but then the magnetic field is left unexplained unless there is a substantial initial superheating of the core. If one accepts the initial superheating then, as we will show, a simple thermal evolution model with monotonic cooling of the planet due to stagnant lid mantle convection underneath a single plate throughout the evolution can better reconcile early crust formation and magnetic field generation.
Breuer Doris
Spohn Tilman
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