RT journal article
T1 The stability of a liquid-water body below the south polar cap of Mars
A1 Egea González, María Isabel
A1 Lois, Paula
A1 Jiménez Díaz, Alberto
A1 Bramson, Ali
A1 Sori, Michael
A1 Tendero Ventanas, Juan Ángel
A1 Ruiz, Javier
A2 Física Aplicada
A2 Ingeniería Mecánica y Diseño Industrial
K1 Mars
K1 Polar caps
K1 Thermal histories
K1 Ices
AB Radar data from the Mars Express spacecraft show bright subsurface reflections in the Planum Australe area thatcould be due to liquid water located at a depth of 1.5 km (Orosei et al., 2018). If this interpretation of the data iscorrect, the presence of such water would have important implications for the present-day thermal state of theregion. In this article, we recalculate the depth of the liquid water and we analyze the influence of the regionalthermal properties in the surface heat flow and the subsurface temperatures. We have obtained a new depth tothe bright reflector between 1.3 and 1.5 km by using a temperature dependent relative permittivity for the waterice and taking into account the dust content in the area. We show that regional properties in the SPLD moderatelyinfluence the thermal state of the area where the liquid water is located. A better knowledge of the porosityprofile in the studied area is necessary to constrain surface heat flow and subsurface temperatures accurately.Our findings are in agreement with previous work that shows anomalously high local heat flows would berequired to sustain liquid water at this location.
PB Elsevier
SN 1090-2643
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/32189
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/32189
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 10-may-2026