Journal
PLANETARY AND SPACE SCIENCE
Volume 59, Issue 2-3, Pages 203-206Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.pss.2010.05.016
Keywords
Methane hydrate; Hydrogen sulfide; Methane plumes; Thermodynamics; Diffusion; Permafrost; Mars
Categories
Funding
- NASA [NNX09AD67G]
- NASA [NNX09AD67G, 120247] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Methane clathrate hydrate reservoirs capped by overlying permafrost have been proposed as potential sources of atmospheric methane plumes on Mars. However, the surface flux of methane from hydrate dissociation is limited by the diffusion rate of methane through the overlying ice. Assuming hydrates underlay the entire plume footprint, the maximum diffusion path length is expected to be less than 15 m, depths too shallow to stabilize pure methane hydrates under Mars geothermal and lithostatic conditions at low to mid latitudes. Therefore, pure methane hydrates confined within permafrost could not produce methane surface fluxes of the magnitude observed near the equator. However, the addition of 10% H2S, a secondary gas commonly associated with methane production on Earth, expands the hydrate stability field, with clathrates expected within 10 m of the surface at the equator and at depths less than 1 m at higher latitudes. This indicates that H2S would also be expected to be released as well as methane if the plumes have a confined hydrate reservoir source. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available