Methane and carbon dioxide hydrates on Mars: Potential origins, distribution, detection, and implications for future in situ resource utilization

Details Methane and carbon dioxide hydrates on Mars: Potential origins, distribution, detection, and implications for future in situ resource utilization Methane and carbon dioxide hydrates on Mars: Potential origins, distribution, detection, and implications for future in situ resource utilization

Apr 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003jgre..108.8042p&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research (Planets), Volume 108, Issue E4, pp. GDS 23-1, CiteID 8042, DOI 10.1029/2002JE001901

Mathematics

Probability

10

Planetary Sciences: Origin And Evolution, Planetary Sciences: Composition, Hydrology: Frozen Ground, Global Change: Water Cycles (1836), Planetary Sciences: Interiors (8147)

Scientific paper

There is high probability for the long-term crustal accumulation of methane and carbon dioxide on Mars. These gases can arise from a variety of processes, including deep biosphere activity and abiotic mechanisms, or, like water, they could exist as remnants of planetary formation and by-products of internal differentiation. CH4 and CO2 would tend to rise buoyantly toward the planet's surface, condensing with water under appropriate conditions of temperature and pressure to form gas hydrate. Gas hydrates are a class of materials created when gas molecules are trapped within a crystalline lattice of water-ice. The hydrate stability fields of both CH4 and CO2 encompass a portion of the Martian crust that extends from within the water-ice cryosphere, from a depth as shallow as ~10-20 m to as great as a kilometer or more below the base of the Martian cryosphere. The presence and distribution of methane and carbon dioxide hydrates may be of critical importance in understanding the geomorphic evolution of Mars and the geophysical identification of water and other volatiles stored in the hydrates. Of critical importance, Martian gas hydrates would ensure the availability of key in situ resources for sustaining future robotic and human exploration, and the eventual colonization, of Mars.

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