Chapter 11 Mars Vocabulary page 263 due 3/28/2014

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In what ways is Mars similar to Earth and in what ways is it different Similar – Both have Volcanoes – Polar ice caps – Both have atmospheres – Both terrain regions : mountain and canyons – Seasonal patterns – both have an axle tilt – Days about the same length

In what ways is Mars similar to Earth and in what ways is it different Similar – Martian day about 24 hours – Dark patterns show seasonal change – Polar caps – frozen water in caps – Both have an atmosphere – They are both terrestrial planets and round – Both have water and bacteria – dry desert regions

In what ways is Mars similar to Earth and in what ways is it different Differences – There is a time difference in the length of day ( about 50minutes) – Mars has a thinner and colder atmosphere – Low levels of oxygen on Mars – No confirmed bacterial life on Mars – Most CO2 in the atmosphere – No advanced life on Mars – No liquid water on Mars – No ozone

In what ways is Mars similar to Earth and in what ways is it different Differences – Mars has a thin atmosphere, mostly CO2 – Mars has a 2 degrees more axis tilt – Earth has people and advanced planet life – Different size, Mars is smaller – Mars has 2 moons – Distance from the sun, the year is longer

Deimos is the smaller of Mars' two moons. Being only 15 by 12 by 11 km in size, Deimos whirls around Mars every 30 hours

Phobos, gouged and nearly shattered by a giant impact crater and beaten by thousands of meteorite impacts, is on a collision course with Mars.

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What is the relationship between internal activity and Mars’s spectacular surface features such as its gigantic volcanoes and immense canyon systems Volcanic Activity – The northern hemisphere of Mars shows evidence of craters and lava plains that covered them – It also shows that the plains formed at different time 1 billion to 4 billion years ago Volcanoes of the Tharsis Region – Tharsis is a continental structure: formed from convection bulging or volcanic activity – Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons, Ascreus Mons, and Olympus Mons are some of the largest volcanoes on Mars

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What is the relationship between internal activity and Mars’s spectacular surface features such as its gigantic volcanoes and immense canyon systems Volcanoes of the Tharsis Region – They stand close to 17 miles (27 km) tall, a 400 km diameter and a caldera 100 km across – Hawaiian island is 120 Km diameter and 5.6 miles (10 km) tall – Olympus Mons is the tallest at 24 km tall, 550 km across and raises above the Martian atmosphere – 5% pressure at the summit – It would take great pressure to form these volcanoes, this tells us that the magma came from deep inside the planet about 160 km (earth 100 km)

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What is the relationship between internal activity and Mars’s spectacular surface features such as its gigantic volcanoes and immense canyon systems Other Volcanoes – A Patera has no example on earth, but resembles a pyroclastic flow on earth – gentle slopes less then.5 degrees, you would never realize you were walking up hill – The Elysium region ( another continental region) also has shield volcanoes, Elysium Mons the largest at 170 km across and 9 km tall – The surrounding plain show little cratering and may be the youngest eruption on Mars

What is the relationship between internal activity and Mars’s spectacular surface features such as its gigantic volcanoes and immense canyon systems Volcanic History

What can we learn about the history of Mars by studying its surface features Crustal motion – faults and chasms in the Tharsis region support the claim the area formed from uplifting. 2.5 to 3.5 billion years old – Valles Marineris is a interconnected canyon system that shows signs of fracturing, landslides and some water erosion features. It all points to the center of the Tharsis region. – Has signs of plate tectonics in banded magnetic fields

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What can we learn about the history of Mars by studying its surface features The Martian cannels – There are two types, runoff and outflow – This is a surprise since water currently would either freeze or quickly evaporate from the surface River system – The channels are shallow and wide spread, being more consistent with water come up from underground sources. 3.5 to 4 billion years ago

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What can we learn about the history of Mars by studying its surface features Ancient Floods – These channels are large outflows, with large volumes of water flowing through them, about 3000 times that of the Amazon river. Mostly in the equatorial regions – This means a large volume of water was either present or a vast amount was melted beneath the surface. – The age shows activity from 3.9 billion years ago to a few years ago

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Has liquid water ever existed on Mars and, if so, where is that water today There is evidence of run off and outflow sources on Mars, in water channels. Seasonal Caps – Period 1 – Size change based on season, the large elliptical orbit has a major effect (earth has a 3% ellipse and mars a 20%). The southern is cooler – the north is milder with a larger permanent cap Seasonal Caps – Period 4 – Temperature needs to be below 150 k for dry ice to form, dry ice forms during fall and winter

Has liquid water ever existed on Mars and, if so, where is that water today Residual caps – period 1 – Southern cap is 350 km across made mainly of CO 2, The northern cap 1000 km across mainly H2O – The idea is that the dust help keep the south cool and allow the northern cap to melt, if melted cover entire planet (20 Meters deep) Residual Caps – period 4 – Northern cap mainly frozen water, northern cap is dust covered allowing it to absorb more heat.

Has liquid water ever existed on Mars and, if so, where is that water today Layered deposits – period 1 – Sediment deposits from the melting of the polar caps – 10 degrees of latitude from the pole is covered by thick sediments, so thick that they form dunes Layered deposits – period 4 – Layer thickness is from 10 meters to 50 meters, cover up the landscape, no impact craters in the deposits – they must be young. – This gives you a way to measure the procession of Mars, the layers alternate between north and south

Has Mars atmosphere always been as thin, dry, and cold as it is now The Atmosphere of Mars – The surface pressure on Mars is less then 1% that of Earth or 21 miles up into Earth’s atmosphere – 95% carbon dioxide, Nitrogen and Argon; water vapor changes with the seasons and time a day – There is little atmospheric heat absorption, the ground absorbs most of the heat, lack of ozone also means the upper atmosphere does not collect or store heat either

Has Mars atmosphere always been as thin, dry, and cold as it is now Weather on Mars – Viking gave us the first weather data on Mars (3 years worth), Pathfinder continues this data collection and expands the information to: winds at altitudes and temperature taken more frequently – Temps can drop 20 degrees Celsius in minutes and there can be as much a 8 degree Celsius difference a meter above the surface. Beyond this the weather is unchanging – The pressure in the atmosphere changes with the seasons, southern winter being the greatest

Has Mars atmosphere always been as thin, dry, and cold as it is now Atmospheric dust – The dust storms are greatest in the southern spring and can cover the entire planet ( large storms do not all the time) – The occur often enough on the small scale to constantly keep dust in the air – They can block out 99% of the sunlight, it can takes weeks to months for it to all settle out of the atmosphere – This does cause the Northern to have a warm summer, the dark spots are also caused by the moving dust,

Has Mars atmosphere always been as thin, dry, and cold as it is now Clouds – Mars only has about 1% cloud coverage at any one time, the northern latitudes have a polar hood of water and co2 paticles – There is also uplifting clouds and steam fog in craters and valleys – This is evidence of water below the surface The interior and evolution of Mars

Has Mars atmosphere always been as thin, dry, and cold as it is now The interior and evolution of Mars – Mars is half the size of Earth, This means that it would cool faster then the earth – The surface is heavy in Iron, this tells us that the core is iron rich and explains the easy flow of the lava on the surface Internal Structure – The core is mostly nickel and iron, is about 40 to 50% of the distance to the surface and about 15% of the planets mass – Mars is about 27% iron, Earth is about 40%

Has Mars atmosphere always been as thin, dry, and cold as it is now Thermal history – As impacts and radioactivity heated the core it would have melted the rock, this would have started an expansion of the planet of about 10km (about 2 to 3 billion years ago), this may be the cause of fractures and deep valleys on the surface – It appears that Mars has cooled due volcanic flows and has continued as the flows became more localized, this leads us to believe the planet may be more solid then earth – We have not been able to reliable seismic data on Mars

Has Mars atmosphere always been as thin, dry, and cold as it is now – Climate History The amount of out gassing need to give the water levels seen, means Mars would have had atmosphere thick enough and with enough pressure to have liquid water, even rainfall We have discovered lake sediments several meters thick to support this and carbonaceous rocks With the lack of plate tectonics and slowing of volcanic activity, the carbon dioxide became trapped in the surface or was lost to space This forced water either underground or into space.

Has liquid water ever existed on Mars and, if so, where is that water today Where is Mar’s water – The evidence shows that at one time Mars had enough water to cover the surface to 100m to 500m – If we took all the water in the atmosphere it would cover 1/ of an inch – Most data collected shows that it is below the surface frozen as a permafrost with a huge concentration in the south pole (Odyssey, Mars express, MRO) – Even with all the current data there still appears to not be enough water

Is there any evidence of present or past life on Mars Page