Journal
METEORITICS & PLANETARY SCIENCE
Volume 51, Issue 11, Pages 2226-2233Publisher
WILEY-BLACKWELL
DOI: 10.1111/maps.12630
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers (INSU)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Centre National d'Etude Spatiale (CNES), through the Programme National de Planetologie, the PICS program
- MEX/PFS Program
- AMIDEX project - Investissements d'Avenir French Government program [ANR-11-IDEX-0001-02]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [41175039]
- Ministry of Education of China [20131029170]
- Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program [523001028]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In a previous paper (Chassefiere et al. 2013), we have shown that most volcanic sulfur released to the early Mars atmosphere could have been trapped in the upper cryosphere under the form of CO2-SO2 clathrates. Huge amounts of sulfur, up to the equivalent of an similar to 1 bar atmosphere of SO2, would have been stored in the Noachian upper cryosphere, then massively released to the atmosphere during the Hesperian due to rapidly decreasing CO2 pressure. It could have resulted in the formation of the large sulfate deposits observed mainly in Hesperian terrains, whereas no or little sulfates are found at the Noachian. In the present paper, we first clarify some aspects of our previous work. We discuss the possibility of a smaller cooling effect of sulfur particles, or even of a net warming effect. We point out the fact that CO2-SO2 clathrates formed through a progressive enrichment of a pre-existing reservoir of CO2 clathrates and discuss processes potentially involved in the slow formation of a SO2-rich upper cryosphere. We show that episodes of sudden destabilization at the Hesperian may generate 1000 ppmv of SO2 in the atmosphere and contribute to maintaining the surface temperature above the water freezing point.
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