Comments on: Massive flow on Mars

By: BSJ

BSJ — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 18:04:12 +0000

Not water flows at all. http://earthsky.org/todays-image/mars-dust-cascade-photo

I find it very interesting how many small craters there are, ALL over the place.

For terrain that is modified, ‘relatively’ often, there sure are a bunch on them.

By: Localfluff

Localfluff — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 08:31:03 +0000

@wodun
What I’ve gathered is that there is probably very little water in such formations nowadays. What is seen is clay minerals or other stuff once created by a water flow. But if it came from a subsurface glacier, there might be more of it left at the source. One cause of melting is a (modest) asteroid impact. Maybe wind erosion can cause a landslide that heats and exposes ice. InSight to be launched this May 5th will give data about Mars’ inner temperature, it’ll be the first dig into the subsurface. The ExoMars rover to be launched at the conjunction after that will also drill. Finally Mars exploration has come to that.

Properties of Mars’ atmosphere varies alot. Mars distance to the Sun varies by 10% from Summer to Winter. Combined with the axial tilt, seasons in the southern highlands of Mars are more extreme than in the northern lowlands. Mars has real weather, climate and seasons and it depends alot on at what latitude and altitude one is. The thin atmosphere doesn’t make it all so very important to astronauts, though.

By: Robert Zimmerman

Robert Zimmerman — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 01:25:30 +0000

In reply to wodun. wodun: The flows here are not completely understood. It is assumed water is a component, but it is also believed that it is mixed with other materials to produce a brinelike material that is seeping across the surface.

By: wodun

wodun — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 00:56:28 +0000

What is the volume of water that this flow represents? What caused the water to become liquid? What happened to the water, did it freeze in place or did it sublimate into the atmosphere? What is the humidity at this location and how much does it change over the course of a Martian day?

I’ve read that the humidity on Mars is at or near 100% but that it fluctuates a little depending on what time of day it is and that location influences this too.

Places like this may be great for mining water but also not the safest until we understand what causes the freeze/thaw process and how to mitigate or take advantage of events like this.