By insisting that Mars was almost totally Earth-like, most of the studies fail to get to grips with "how" it was different. For instance, on Earth, the river deltas in permafrost areas have a characteristic pattern of shallow pools between the river channels - this is related to there still being ice in the pools at the times the channels flow, and it thaws later, after the sediments have gone through:-
(Lena Delta)
Ephemeral streams in hot and cold desert areas also have subtle aspects of morphology that *might* be detectable on Mars.
There's no doubt that there are distributory deltas on Mars, but the key question is what do they mean for Mars?
Rather than trumpeting "Mars had rivers, so Mars was/is Earth-like" we need to say "What SORT of rivers did Mars have?", "When did it have these rivers?" , "What was Mars like at that time?" etc...
By asking the right questions, we can learn.
Space/Science » in reply to Onyx River
This is where Mars studies fail
The whole thread (29 posts)
- Ancient Mars was wet and diverse....
- Wet yes, but wet with what?
- re: Wet yes, but wet with what?
- re: Wet yes, but wet with what?
- Unfortunately
- re: Wet yes, but wet with what?
- re: Wet yes, but wet with what?
- all still too early
- Rivers flowed WHEN it rained *
- re: Ancient Mars was wet and diverse.... to Marsbug below:
- Wet yes, but wet with what?