. 24/7 Space News .
A WORLD OF LEAKS - PART ONE - PART TWO - PART THREE

the salty tears of soda? MSSS Image
  • Desktop Version Available
  • Mars The Soda Fountain
    by Bruce Moomaw
    Cameron Park - June 27, 2000 - It's a neat theory -- but it has one major problem: what is causing deeply buried liquid water to flow all the way up to near Mars' surface in the first place in these very cold regions?

    They don't seem to be located near areas where Mars might still have a significant amount of underground geothermal activitity -- and they are mostly at high altitudes, rather than lowlands where the force of gravity on the higher-altitude underground liquid water table in nearby highlands might increase the water pressure under the lowlands to cause eruptions of pressurized water there ("Artesian wells").

    And how does the liquid water even stay liquid long enough to get so near the surface in these frigid regions, rather than freezing thousands of meters underground?

    The latter mystery may be solved by the fact that any groundwater on Mars is likely to be very salty. Mars' soil is thought to be extremely rich in salts -- some estimates say that as much as 30% of it may be magnesium sulfate ("Epsom salt"), and another large part may be calcium sulfate. And such brine solutions can stay liquid at far lower temperatures than plain water.

    In an abstract published at this March's Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Russian scientists R.O. Kuzmin and E.V.Zabalueva point out that a solution of magnesium sulfate melts at only -35 deg C, a calcium sulfate solution melts at only -55 deg, and a mixture of the two stays liquid down to only -63 deg.

    This could mean that liquid groundwater on Mars may be much nearer the surface than most scientists have thought up to now.

    The puzzle of what's forcing the briny water upward may be explained by another abstract at the same conference.

    Jeffrey S. Kargel and Kenneth Tanaka pointed out that virtually all Mars specialists think that the Martian subsurface contains not only large amounts of liquid or frozen water, but also large amounts of carbon dioxide released from volcanic vents during Mars' early history.

    Mars' buried subsurface groundwater may be highly carbonated salty seltzer -- and the lower parts of the layer of permafrost above it may often be a mixture of water ice with CO2 incorporated into it (a "clathrate").

    But if this material is significantly heated, the CO2 will come violently out of solution and could build up a tremendous underground pressure -- a pressure great enough to force deeply buried subsurface briny water up to near the surface, or even out of it to form natural soda fountains!

    What could thus heat it? There are two possibilities. First, it could be that various areas of Mars undergo intermittent periods of greater subsurface volcanic heating even today.

    But another possibility has to do with the well-confirmed fact that Mars' axial tilt (its "obliquity") -- unlike Earth's -- slowly but very greatly increases and decreases over a cycle of about 124,000 years (due to the fact that Mars lacks the tides from a large Moon as a stabilizing mechanism).

    During this cycle, its axial tilt (which is currently 25 degrees) increases and decreases over the range from 15 deg to 35 deg -- and more recent simulations suggest that over longer cycles of tens of millions of years, the tilt may wobble all the way from 0 deg to 60 deg (that is, there are periods when Mars, like Uranus and Pluto, is keeled over on its side).

    Now, when this happens to a planet, very strange things happen to its climate.

  • Read On For Part Two




    Thanks for being here;
    We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

    With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

    Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

    If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
    SpaceDaily Contributor
    $5 Billed Once


    credit card or paypal
    SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
    $5 Billed Monthly


    paypal only














  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.