Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Ebenezer and Clovis suggest volcanism

Indeed...
Nick Hoffman — (archived)

Nicely put, Bruce.

The chemistry is rather odd, compared to Earth, but then so is Mars! But the outline looks good - volcanic origin for much of the chemistry, interacting with basaltic rocks to varying degrees.

As EP puts it, we need to work on lab experiments with this sort of sulphate rich chemistry under cold near-vacuum conditions. Only then will we begin to understand the evolution of Mars. (I don't subscribe to the rest of his thesis, of course).

So long as we keep inventing oceans and the requisite atmoispheres to sustain them, we're continuing to kid ourselves.

Nonetheless, we're talking about large amounts of sulphuric acid here, which can allow all sorts of things to happen. One question is whether the deeper crustal layers are less acid, according to the freezing point of the water-H2SO4 system.

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