Tag Archives: polar ocean

Mars’ oceans formed early, with a possible assist from volcanism

Posted on March 19, 2018 by rburnham

A new scenario seeking to explain how Mars’ putative oceans came and went over the last 4 billion years implies that the oceans formed several hundred million years earlier and were not as deep as once thought. The proposal [published … Continue reading →

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Valley networks point to much wetter past

Posted on June 5, 2017 by rburnham

A new study led by Northern Illinois University geography professor Wei Luo calculates the amount of water needed to carve the ancient network of valleys on Mars and concludes the Red Planet’s surface was once much more watery than previously … Continue reading →

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Mars has lost an ‘Arctic Ocean’ of water

Posted on March 5, 2015 by rburnham

A primitive ocean on Mars held more water than Earth’s Arctic Ocean, and covered a greater portion of the planet’s surface than the Atlantic Ocean does on Earth, according to new results published today in Science. An international team of … Continue reading →

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“Olympic” ocean in Tharsis?

Posted on July 30, 2012 by rburnham

Two features of Olympus Mons have puzzled geologists since they were discovered decades ago. First are the “aureole” deposits, rough terrain extending as much as 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the volcano. And second is the scarp, about 8,000 meters … Continue reading →

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A polar ocean leaves few clay deposits

Posted on August 28, 2011 by rburnham

The northern lowlands of Mars have long invited the notion that in ancient times they once contained a now-vanished polar ocean. Yet a longstanding argument against such was the lack of widespread clay minerals that would naturally occur with such … Continue reading →

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