Storage of heavy noble gases into the Martian cryosphere

Details Storage of heavy noble gases into the Martian cryosphere Storage of heavy noble gases into the Martian cryosphere

Oct 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011epsc.conf..223m&link_type=abstract

EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011, held 2-7 October 2011 in Nantes, France. http://meetings.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2011, p.223

Computer Science

Scientific paper

The difference between the measured atmospheric abundances of argon, krypton and xenon for Earth and Mars is striking. Because these abundances drop by at least two orders of magnitude as one moves outward from Earth to Mars, the study of the origin of this discrepancy is a key issue that must be explained if we are to fully understand the different delivery mechanisms of the volatiles accreted by the terrestrial planets. Here we aim to investigate whether it is possible to quantitatively explain the variation of the heavy noble gas abundances measured on Earth and Mars, assuming that these volatiles were sequestrated in the form of clathrates in the cryosphere of the ancient Mars. To do so, we use a statistical mechanical model to determine the composition of CO2-dominated clathrates formed on the Martian surface in a pressure range between 0.007 and 3 bar at the ground level. We show that amounts of krypton and xenon equivalent to those found on Earth can be incorporated into the Martian cryosphere provided that the surface pressure exceeds 0.15 bar at their epoch of trapping into clathrates. In contrast, the incorporation of an amount of argon equivalent to the Earth value requires a surface pressure higher than 2.2 bar.

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