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Image Credit: Universe Today
Mars’s Northern Ice Cap is Surprisingly Young
- Researchers have found that Mars's northern polar ice cap is quite young, providing insights into the planet's interior.
- The team used techniques to measure glacial isostatic adjustment, revealing ongoing deformation in response to the weight of the ice.
- The Martian ice cap measures approximately 1000 kilometers in diameter and up to three kilometers thick, causing depression in the underlying rocky crust.
- By studying glacial isostatic rebound on Mars, researchers concluded that the planet's north polar cap is relatively young and deforms the ground beneath it.
- The small deformation rates suggest that Mars's upper mantle is cold, highly viscous, and stiffer compared to Earth's upper mantle.
- Understanding how ice affects planetary surfaces helps scientists probe deep beneath the surfaces of rocky planets like Mars and Earth.
- Measurements of depression and rebound provide insights into the viscosity of the mantle rocks and the characteristics of planetary construction.
- The team estimated that Mars's north pole surface area is subsiding at rates of up to 0.13 millimeters per year, indicating a cold Martian interior.
- The age of Mars's north polar ice cap is estimated to be between 2 and 12 million years, making it one of the youngest large-scale features on the planet.
- The findings highlight the presence of local melt zones in the mantle near the equator, contrasting with the cold mantle underneath the north pole.
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