Publication Date:
2011-04-23
Description:
Shallow Radar soundings from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal a buried deposit of carbon dioxide (CO(2)) ice within the south polar layered deposits of Mars with a volume of 9500 to 12,500 cubic kilometers, about 30 times that previously estimated for the south pole residual cap. The deposit occurs within a stratigraphic unit that is uniquely marked by collapse features and other evidence of interior CO(2) volatile release. If released into the atmosphere at times of high obliquity, the CO(2) reservoir would increase the atmospheric mass by up to 80%, leading to more frequent and intense dust storms and to more regions where liquid water could persist without boiling.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Phillips, Roger J -- Davis, Brian J -- Tanaka, Kenneth L -- Byrne, Shane -- Mellon, Michael T -- Putzig, Nathaniel E -- Haberle, Robert M -- Kahre, Melinda A -- Campbell, Bruce A -- Carter, Lynn M -- Smith, Isaac B -- Holt, John W -- Smrekar, Suzanne E -- Nunes, Daniel C -- Plaut, Jeffrey J -- Egan, Anthony F -- Titus, Timothy N -- Seu, Roberto -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2011 May 13;332(6031):838-41. doi: 10.1126/science.1203091. Epub 2011 Apr 21.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Planetary Science Directorate, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO 80302, USA. roger@boulder.swri.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21512003" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Atmosphere
;
Carbon Dioxide
;
Cold Temperature
;
*Dry Ice
;
Extraterrestrial Environment
;
Ice
;
*Mars
;
Water
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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