Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Re: Near Polar Gullies

Experiment trumps theory.
Robert Clark — (archived)

Martian Outflow Channel Formation by Water Erosion Under Nonequilibrium Conditions.
Abstracts of the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, volume 20,
page 666, (1989).
"An experimental study was carried out in a 2.4m by 4.9m cylindrical
vacuum chamber in order to investigate the possibility that martian
outflow channels were formed by the melting of ground ice. Frozen
soils that were subjected to an increased geothermal gradient at
temperatures about 273K and at an average pressure of 8.38 mbar,
melted and formed water-filled depressions and outflow channels. The
depressions formed as a subsurface ice layer thawed. Water initially
appeared at the surface either during gradual collapse of the surface
material or as geysers. The mode of appearance of water at the surface
was a function primarily of the strength of the ice and the temperature of the water vapor."
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?1989LPI....20..666M
[full text]

Bob Clark

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