A new study explores how variations in Mars' crustal thickness during its ancient history may have influenced the planet's magmatic evolution and hydrological systems. The research, published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, suggests that the thick crust of Mars' southern highlands formed billions of years ago generated granitic magmas and sustained vast underground aquifers, challenging long-held assumptions about the red planet's geological and hydrological past.
The study, led by Rice University's Cin-Ty Lee, demonstrates that the southern highlands' thick crust -- up to 80 kilometers in some areas -- was hot enough during the Noachian and early Hesperian periods (3-4 billion years ago) to undergo partial melting in the lower crust. This process, driven by radioactive heating, could have produced significant amounts of silicic magmas such as granites and supported subsurface aquifers beneath a frozen surface layer.
"Our findings indicate that Mars' crustal processes were far more dynamic than previously thought," said Lee, the Harry Carothers Wiess Professor of Geology and professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences. "Not only could thick crust in the southern highlands have generated granitic magmas without plate tectonics, but it also created the thermal conditions for stable groundwater aquifers -- reservoirs of liquid water -- on a planet we've often considered dry and frozen."
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