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Scientists: Water frost detected in calderas of four Martian volcanos

Frost found on four Martian volcanoes

Scientists using data from two European Mars orbiters think they have detected patches of transient water frost in the calderas of four Martian volcanos, all located in the dry equatorial regions of Mars where previously no near-surface ice has been seen.

According to the study, the frost is present for only a few hours after sunrise before it evaporates in sunlight. The frost is also incredibly thin — likely only one-hundredth of a millimeter thick or about the width of a human hair. Still, it’s quite vast. The researchers calculate the frost constitutes at least 150,000 tons of water that swaps between the surface and atmosphere each day during the cold seasons. That’s the equivalent of roughly 60 Olympic-size swimming pools.

You can read the research paper here. The volcanoes with frost were Olympus Mons, Arsia Mons, Ascraeus Mons, and Ceraunius Tholus, as shown by the blue dots on the overview map to the right. All are in the dry tropics of Mars.

The researchers believe the frost comes from the atmosphere, like dew forming in the morning on Earth. For it to take place at these high elevations on Mars however is astonishing. At these high elevations the atmosphere is extremely thin. Furthermore, the dry tropics have so far been found to contain no near-surface water or ice to fuel these processes.

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2 comments

  • Jerry Greenwood

    Do our landers have water detectors or is it only found at those extreme altitudes.

    The idea that we could condense water from the atmosphere is great. I hope it’s true.

  • Max

    Reading the article I could not find if it was definitive analysis from spectrograph? The chart indicates that CO2 should form before water vapor at that altitude. It disappears after sunrise so quickly that it’s hard to determine. (Many satellite analysis detects hydrogen which is then assumed to be water)
    Average air pressure on Mars is .007bars. (seven millibars) Earth is one bar at sea level(14.5psi). unless you get your information from MarsPedia which says;
    “ The total mass of the Martian atmosphere is 2.5×10^16 kg

    Air Pressure
    1-9 millibars (depending on altitude) or 600 Pa, average. This is 0.6% of Earth’s air pressure at sea level (14,7 psi or 101,3 kPa)

    Note that in the southern winter, approximately 30% of the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide freezes out at the poles. (In the northern winter, about 12% freezes out.) Thus there is a strong seasonable component to the air pressure on Mars. The pressure ranges from about 1 bar to 0.7 bar over the course of the year (measured at the Viking lander sites). These values are lower at higher elevations.
    If Mars had Earth’s surface gravity, the atmosphere would be held more tightly, and compressed into a smaller volume. Since Mars’ surface gravity is 38% of Earth’s, the atmosphere is ‘puffier’ and extends farther into space”
    https://marspedia.org/Atmosphere

    (The 1 bar to .7 bar must be a huge error. One bar is equal to earths atmosphere).

    “”Mars’s atmosphere is so thin that it is more than a hundred times lighter than that on Earth. Atmospheric pressure at ground level is a fraction of ours, and about the same as it is 35 kilometres above the Earth. This thin atmosphere consists almost entirely of carbon dioxide with small fractions of nitrogen, argon, oxygen, and a few other gases. When the carbon dioxide condenses as ice at the poles every winter, the atmospheric pressure plummets by as much as 30%“”

    Quote from the article in the link;
    “The stratification of water vapour in Mars’s atmosphere, especially near the surface, is not well understood48, making the determination of the H2O frost point challenging due to its considerable variability; however, it is generally accepted that this point occurs at around 180 K.”

    In other words, they are uncertain due to mitigating factors. But it is a good guess.
    My guess is the Mars Version of earths stratospheric clouds from the solar wind are collecting in the caldera‘s cold spots?

    Definition: A bar (symbol: bar) is a metric unit of pressure that is defined as exactly 100,000 pascals (symbol: Pa).

    Mount Olympus caldera is 110pa. Close to vacuum. Water converts from a solid to a gas at six millibars. I’ve always wondered if a body is exposed to vacuum, will the heat in your body allow the water to boil and explode before you freeze solid?
    Grandchildren have me distracted, need more coffee.

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