Publication: The early heat loss evolution of Mars and
their implications for internal and
environmental history
Loading...
Official URL
Full text at PDC
Publication Date
2014
Authors
Advisors (or tutors)
Editors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Nature publishing group
Citations
Exportar
Abstract
The time around 3.7 Ga ago was an epoch when substantial changes in Mars occurred: a substantial decline in aqueous erosion/degradation of landscape features; a change from abundant phyllosilicate formation to abundant acidic and evaporitic mineralogy; a change from olivine-rich volcanism to olivine-pyroxene volcanism; and maybe the cessation of the martian dynamo. Here I show that Mars also experienced profound changes in its internal dynamics in the same approximate time, including a reduction of heat flow and a drastic increasing of lithosphere strength. The reduction of heat flow indicates a limited cooling (or even a heating-up) of the deep interior for post-3.7 Ga times. The drastic increasing of lithosphere strength indicates a cold lithosphere above the inefficiently cooled (or even heated) interior. All those changes experienced by Mars were most probably linked and suggest the existence of profound interrelations between interior dynamics and environmental evolution of this planet.