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Groundwater Release on Early Mars: Utilizing Models and Proposed Evidence for Groundwater Release to Estimate the Required Climate and Subsurface Water Budget
Author(s) -
Palumbo Ashley M.,
Head James W.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2020gl087230
Subject(s) - groundwater , mars exploration program , environmental science , martian , climate change , hydrology (agriculture) , surface water , climate model , groundwater model , geology , earth science , aquifer , groundwater flow , astrobiology , environmental engineering , oceanography , physics , geotechnical engineering
It has been proposed that groundwater was released onto the early martian surface in several locations, including Meridiani Planum, NE Hellas, Terra Sirenum, the northern lowlands, and Gale crater. We assume that groundwater was released in a manner similar to a groundwater‐fed lake on Earth and then use a combination of a global climate model and mathematical relationships to place lower limit estimates on the early climate and subsurface water inventory that are required for groundwater release to occur at all of these locations. We find that the minimum required conditions are global mean annual temperature >284 K and a subsurface water inventory >496 m global equivalent layer. Additionally, thermal models predict that if such warm conditions occurred from punctuated heating in an otherwise “cold and icy” climate, the warm conditions must have persisted for thousands of years in order to remove the cryosphere and permit groundwater release.