Exoscientist
03-01-04, 12:19 PM
The results from the MER rovers suggest there might be small amounts of near surface liquid water in the form of brines to explain the stickiness of the surface at the landing sites:
Into the Briny Deep - Perhaps.
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article842.html
It is also known that capillary action alone can significantly depress the freezing point of water, perhaps down to -40 C:
Mars and Muddied Waters?
Low Freezing Point
Summary: Can Mars support liquid water? So fundamental a question was hoped to be resolved with high-resolution orbital images, but the debate on whether Mars was once wet and warm has a twist: liquid water may be trapped in the porous soil, even well below its normal freezing point.
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article652.html
Freezing-resistant liquid water in porous media, a possible mechanism to account for the fluidized transport of sediments on Mars: an example from East Gorgonum crater.
Roberto Oyarzun1, Cristóbal Viedma1, Alvaro Márquez2 and Javier Lillo
Terra Nova
Volume 15 Issue 4 Page 238 - August 2003
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1046/j.1365-3121.2003.00487.x/abs/
It is interesting then that some near equatorial sites such as Gusev and Meridiani have mean annual surface temperatures at 234 K or -39 C. See the attached image.
Then the liquid water could persist at these sites year round.
Attached image from:
The presence and stability of ground ice in the southern hemisphere of Mars
Michael T. Mellon , William C. Feldman and Thomas H. Prettyman
Icarus, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 28 February 2004
http://makeashorterlink.com/?V23E22097
Bob Clark
Into the Briny Deep - Perhaps.
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article842.html
It is also known that capillary action alone can significantly depress the freezing point of water, perhaps down to -40 C:
Mars and Muddied Waters?
Low Freezing Point
Summary: Can Mars support liquid water? So fundamental a question was hoped to be resolved with high-resolution orbital images, but the debate on whether Mars was once wet and warm has a twist: liquid water may be trapped in the porous soil, even well below its normal freezing point.
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article652.html
Freezing-resistant liquid water in porous media, a possible mechanism to account for the fluidized transport of sediments on Mars: an example from East Gorgonum crater.
Roberto Oyarzun1, Cristóbal Viedma1, Alvaro Márquez2 and Javier Lillo
Terra Nova
Volume 15 Issue 4 Page 238 - August 2003
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1046/j.1365-3121.2003.00487.x/abs/
It is interesting then that some near equatorial sites such as Gusev and Meridiani have mean annual surface temperatures at 234 K or -39 C. See the attached image.
Then the liquid water could persist at these sites year round.
Attached image from:
The presence and stability of ground ice in the southern hemisphere of Mars
Michael T. Mellon , William C. Feldman and Thomas H. Prettyman
Icarus, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 28 February 2004
http://makeashorterlink.com/?V23E22097
Bob Clark