Mars (Week 2)

Question 1

What is mars planet profile

Answer 1

2 moons called phobos and deimos
1.9 years to orbit
surface ranges from -153 to 20
2nd millennium BC recorded by egyptian astronomers
largest dust storms
will one day have a ring

Question 2

Why is Mars hostile

Answer 2

• thin C02 atmosphere
• gravity 0.38 of earth
• air pressure 0.7 of earth

Question 3

What is Mars core like

Answer 3

• large and liquid
• insight lander revealed this

Question 4

Why will Mars eventually have rings

Answer 4

• moons closer to surface and mars will break them apart to get rings

Question 5

How does the mass of Mars compare to Earth

Answer 5

• Mars is has 10 times less the mass- very small planet

Question 6

What is the dominant crustal material

Answer 6

• basaltic (on venus too)

Question 7

What are the volcanoes on Mars like

Answer 7

• many volcanoes
• whole provinces- olympus = largest volcano in solar system
• Tharsis igenous area made from 3 aligned volcanoes
• Volcanic arcs dont exist- intraplate magmatism (like Hawaii)
• Mars has a cooler geotherm due to thicker crust
• deeper magma storage

Question 8

What are magmatic intrusions like on Mars

Answer 8

• brittle ductile transition is shallower on earth as mars has a thicker crust
  -deeper storage/ fractures deeper
• implications for groundwater storgae

Question 9

how are volcanoes like olympus formed

Answer 9

• thicker crust
• stagnant lid
  -lava flows build up due to lack of techtonics

Question 10

What does extreme crustal dichotomy mean

Answer 10

• northen hemisphere lower topographically
• big impact event caused this
• southern crust impacted much more

Question 11

Examples of some martian rocks

Answer 11

• shergottites ( basaltic to ultramafic, vast majority of martian asteroids, young, due to volcanic activity)
• Nakhilites and Chassignites (ultramafic, formed at surface, come from same location and ejected same event)

Question 12

How do we know these rocks are martian?

Answer 12

• oxygen isotopes
• turned into glass through to hostile pressure of space (measure gases from viking rovers)

Question 13

what is the geological time scale of Mars

Answer 13

• different to earth!
• right now is called the amazonian which is based on rover observations

Question 14

morphology of Mars for water

Answer 14

• deltas
• deltaic fans
• giant pebbles from water flow shown by curiosity

Question 15

does mars have a geodynamo

Answer 15

• NOOOO
• zero evidence
• HOWEVER, mars once may have had one but may have