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8 - Ice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2009

Michael H. Carr
Affiliation:
United States Geological Survey, Menlo Park
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Summary

Ice has likely played many different roles in the evolution of the surface, depending on where and when the ice was located. One can think of ice as being in two reservoirs: one on the surface exchanging with the atmosphere and with the upper meter or so of the surface, and one deep below the surface. The amount at the surface is rather modest, probably no more than 50 m spread over the whole planet, and most is at the poles (Chapter 10). We have known that the northern remnant cap is composed of water ice since the time of Viking (Farmer et al., 1976; Kieffer et al., 1976). Suspicion from that time that a water-ice cap also underlies the remnant CO2 cap in the south has recently been confirmed (Byrne and Ingersoll, 2003b; Bibring et al., 2004). The amount buried deep in the ground is probably substantially larger than the amount on the surface. While we have no direct measure of how much is there, radar sounding suggests that significant amounts may be present (Picardi et al., 2005). In the present epoch, ice is continually being redistributed across the surface and exchanged with the near-surface materials as a result of seasonal changes in insolation and astronomically induced changes (Mellon and Jakosky, 1995). During periods of high obliquity, much of the water now locked up in the poles may move to lower latitudes, and there may be a redistribution of ice that resides within a few meters of the surface.

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The Surface of Mars , pp. 173 - 192
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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  • Ice
  • Michael H. Carr
  • Book: The Surface of Mars
  • Online publication: 12 August 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511536007.010
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  • Ice
  • Michael H. Carr
  • Book: The Surface of Mars
  • Online publication: 12 August 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511536007.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Ice
  • Michael H. Carr
  • Book: The Surface of Mars
  • Online publication: 12 August 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511536007.010
Available formats
×