Influence of Regional Crustal Variations on the Global Temperature Field of Mars

Physics

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Introduction: Although Mars is a terrestrial planet, its internal dynamics differ drastically from the Earth's. As Mars does not exhibit plate tectonics but instead possess a stagnant lid, its ability to loose heat is controlled by the layers forming this stagnant lid. The topmost of these layers is the crust, which - like the stagnant lid in general - has been in place essentially unaltered for the largest part of the planet's history. The main feature of the crust is the dichotomy which divides the planet into the northern lowlands and the southern highlands. But in addition to this prominent global crustal variation, there are also variations on a more regional scale like the thinning of the crust underneath impact basins or its thickening beneath volcanic provinces. Although the influence of crustal variations on recent volcanism has recently been analyzed [1], so far no attention has been spend on the global effects of regional crustal variations. As the crust has a lower thermal conductivity than the mantle with about 2 Wm-1K-1 [2] compared to an average of about 3.3 Wm-1K-1, even relatively small crustal variations can lead to significant changes of internal temperatures. Interestingly, these effects can not just be observed on a regional but also on a global scale. Models: For the analysis two-dimensional models have been developed using the commercial COMSOL Multiphysics

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