White Mars: The story of the Red Planet Without Water

MARSDAILY

White Mars: New Views

This artist's concept is called 20/20 Vision. Did life ever exist on Mars? If so, the best evidence may be fossils preserved in the rocks. Geologists and biologists will one day explore Mars, piecing together the history of the planet and perhaps its ancient life. Artwork for NASA by Pat Rawlings

by Dr Nick Hoffman
Melbourne - Oct. 19, 2000
Michael Malin recently discussed the difficulties we are having understanding Mars, using the standard model and searching for water (and life) on Mars. He said "The Mars we are trying to explore does not exist". I propose that we develop a new concept for Mars. Inspired by Kim Stanley Robinson's epic Mars trilogy, I use the term White Mars to describe a planet that is dry, that is cold and icy, and is dominated by the behaviour of cryogenic CO2. This new Mars is not a hospitable place for life. It never had rivers, lakes, and oceans. It probably never had liquid water flowing on its surface. Ever.

Note that I do not claim that liquid CO2 can flow at the surface of Mars and carve the channels directly. That is clearly not possible with such a thin atmosphere, and probably never was. The flows I describe are cold and dry and supported by CO2 gas, yet collectively they behave as a fluidised flow, and transport sand, dust and rocks on a cloud of cold Martian "air".

The Future?
Where does this leave our exploration plans for Mars? Surely they are totally disrupted by this new understanding of the planet and its volatile history? Certainly the current fervour within NASA for a search for liquid water and life seems misplaced. Curiously though, although the new model puts immense obstacles in the path of past life on Mars, it actually helps for Mars' future.

The observed depletion of hydrogen, taken at face value, predicts that the planet has lost most of its original water inventory. The White Mars model makes a very strong argument that most of Mars' water has never been liquid, and has never participated in atmospheric cycling. Therefore it is not being "seen" by the atmospheric measurement. The White Mars model predicts extensive deposits of clathrate and normal water-ice in Mars' subsurface, particularly in the northern plains. In what is almost a new paradox, a model for cold dry evolution of Mars predicts that it has more available H2O, albeit in frozen form, than the conventional model where the water was extensively liquid.

Of course, the White Mars model does not help the search for life on Mars' surface. Chemical-based life may well have evolved on Mars, as on Earth, but it will never had had a friendly liquid water environment at the surface, so will not have emerged and followed the path of life on Earth. Life on Mars will be deep underground in the roots of Mars giant volcanoes, quietly smouldering away as the fires of Mars damp down over the millenia. The surface of Mars is almost certainly a barren, uninhabited wasteland, waiting for a visitor to place that first footstep in its red dust. Who knows, perhaps one day we might terraform Mars and finally bring life and water to the surface for the first time?

White Mars Part One

White Mars Part Two

White Mars Part Three

Dr Nick Hoffman is a lecturer with the Victorian Basin Studies Centre, VIEPS Department of Earth Science, La Trobe University, Victoria Australia. He may be contacted via SpaceDaily

MARSDAILY

The Geophysical Detection Of Subsurface Water On Mars

Pasadena - Oct. 16, 2000
The search for subsurface water has become a primary focus of Mars exploration. Its abundance and distribution (both as ground ice and groundwater) have important implications for understanding the geologic, hydrologic, and climatic evolution of the planet, the potential origin and continued survival of life, and the accessibility of a critical in situ resource for sustaining future human explorers.

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