Re: 'Pack ice' suggests frozen sea on Mars

From: Belba Grubb From Stock (barbb_at_dbtech.net)
Date: 02/24/05 

Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 10:07:36 -0600

On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 12:42:06 GMT, "George"
<george@wtfiswrongwithyou.com> wrote:

<snip>

>The team arrived at the depth estimate by studying craters in the plates. They
>say the craters appear too shallow for their diameters - suggesting ice is
>filling them up. Moreover, the surface appears unusually level - as if ice were
>beneath it. This evidence suggests the plates are not just imprints left by ice
>that has now completely vanished. Crater counts indicate the age of the plates
>is about 5 million years.
>
>In their paper, the researchers trace a possible history for the underground
>ice. It begins with huge masses of ice floating in water on Mars. The ice was
>later covered with volcanic ash, preventing it from sublimating away into the
>thin atmosphere. Then, the ice broke up and drifted before the remaining liquid
>water froze. All of the ice not protected by ash sublimated away, leaving the
>pack ice plates behind.

Isn't five million years pretty recent for there to have been such
activity on Mars?

Barb
_____

Relevant Pages

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