The problem with Mars is that, unlike the Earth, it does not have an exposed planetwise reservoir of volatiles equivalent to a Terrestrial ocean. If that "water" is there, it is as permafrost - ground ice which has been frozen for billions of years.
The Martian atmosphere is equivalent to about 10cm of CO2 snow, sprinkled planetwide, if you froze out the entire supply of gaseous CO2. As it is, each winter about 25% of the atmosphere condenses into a cap ~ 0.5 to 1 m thick on one or other polecap!
So there isn't enough spare CO2 (or water) to build glaciers on Mars unless you remove it from some crustal storage, which would be revealed by terrain collapse.
The only collapses we see large enough to equate to the building of a new and bigger polecap are the Noachian collapse of the crustal dichotomy:
My abstract here
And the various hesperian collapses of the outburst channels which are at the heart of the volatile question for Mars.
If they were water-releasing events then you can have a brief Northern ocean which rapidly freezes, then sublimes away and builds glaciers and icecaps. If CO2, you have a briefly thicker and warmer atmosphere which then condenses into thick CO2 polecaps and/or glaciers.
(There is some middle ground too, since both models can have both volatiles, but it depends which one dominates)
My co-author, Jeff Kargel, is a long-time supporter of glaciations on Mars. I don't entirely agree with all he says but we have a good deal of overlap in most things relating to ice on Mars.
Space/Science » in reply to Re: Wow! Cool.
Glaciations on Mars
