Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
May 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agusm.p21a..02m&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2009, abstract #P21A-02
Mathematics
Logic
0322 Constituent Sources And Sinks, 3322 Land/Atmosphere Interactions (1218, 1631, 1843), 5405 Atmospheres (0343, 1060), 5422 Ices, 5462 Polar Regions
Scientific paper
Climate change on Mars has been greatly debated in recent years. This has been motivated by the results from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Phoenix Lander and ground-based spectroscopic studies which have found mounting evidence that not only may Mars have had a wet and warm past, but those conditions inclement to life may also have been present more recently. On Mars, this is largely a story of water transport and, as on the Earth, isotopic analysis presents a key to understanding and decoding the Martian paleoclimate. For Mars, the major fractionation observed is in HDO, analogous to the Oxygen-18 cycle on Earth, and observations have shown that the D/H ratio of the planet is enriched by a factor of 5 to 6 from comparable terrestrial values. The conventional explanation is that a great deal of water has been lost to space over geologic time. However, previous studies have not taken into account the ability of present-day Mars to fractionate water as it moves from the polar caps to the polar layered deposits through the atmosphere, potentially masking any climate signal which may exist. In this presentation, we shall report on a series of Mars analogue experiments completed at the relevant ranges of pressure and temperature. Two different scenarios were simulated: the sublimation of dusty water ice and the sublimation of clean water ice through a simulated regolith/dust lag. In both cases, we have found that the system is dominated by adsorption of water. However, the simulant dust (JSC-1) appears to be an extremely efficient vehicle for fractionating water at cold temperatures, as different desorption rates have been recorded for HDO and H2O. This, when coupled with the relatively small amount of water exchanging today implies heavy fractionations in the current Mars system without requiring significant water losses to space.
Boynton William
Brown Reggie
Lauretta Dante
Moores John E.
Smith Patrick
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