RT journal article
T1 The Surface Heat Flow of Mars at the Noachian–Hesperian Boundary
A1 Ruiz, Javier
A1 Parro, Laura M.
A1 Egea González, María Isabel
A1 Romeo, Ignacio
A1 Álvarez-Lozano, Julia
A1 Jiménez Díaz, Alberto
A2 Física Aplicada
K1 crustal thickness
K1 GRS observations
K1 heat loss
K1 heat-producing elements
K1 surface heat flow
AB The time period around the Noachian–Hesperian boundary, 3.7 billionyears ago, was an epoch when great geodynamical and environmental changes occurred on Mars. Currently available remote sensing data are crucial for understanding the Martian heat loss pattern and its global thermal state in this transitional period. We here derive surface heat flows in specific locations based on the estimations of the depth of five large thrust faults in order to constrain both surface and mantle heat flows. Then, we use heat-producing element (HPE) abundances mapped from orbital measurements by the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) onboard the Mars Odyssey 2001 spacecraft and geographical crustal thickness variations to produce a global model for the surface heat flow. The heat loss contribution of large mantle plumes beneath the Tharsis and Elysium magmatic provinces is also considered in our final model. We thus obtain a map of the heat flow variation across the Martian surface at the Noachian–Hesperian boundary. Our model also predicts an average heat flow between 32 and 50 mW (Formula presented.), which implies that the heat loss of Mars at that time was lower than the total radioactive heat production of the planet, which has profound implications for the thermal history of Mars.
PB Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
SN 2072-4292
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/37001
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/37001
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 10-nov-2026