The catastrophic collision of Mars with a large cosmic body led to the formation of the Hellas crater, the ricochet effect and rapid hydrogen degassing of the interior through the largest volcanoes on the back of the planet. The cataclysm led to a cooling of the interior, a significant decrease in the magnetic field and atmosphere, and the freezing of the oceans. Recent scientific data and images prove the presence of water and a "land of tunnels" going under the surface of Mars.
Physical map of Mars - disaster chronicle
When considering the physical map, it is clearly seen that the height of the Mars surface varies from 6 to 8 km below the conditional zero level in the northern hemisphere and in some places in the southern hemisphere.
Mars relief map (American Geological Survey, NASA). The color gradient corresponds to areas with different heights.
Promotional video:
Ricochet effect
American scientists have simulated the "rebound effect" by hitting a small but fast body on a larger one.
At the NASA Ames Vertical Gun Range stand, a glass pellet was accelerated to a speed of about 7 km / s (10 times faster than a bullet, but 2 times slower than an average asteroid). The bullet hit a clear acrylic sphere and the scientists studied the damage.
A similar effect has been captured on a physical map of Mars more than once:
Obviously, the impact of a cosmic body with a diameter of more than one hundred kilometers formed the crater Ellas, 9 km deep and about 2000 km in diameter. The impact significantly influenced the intraplanetary processes of Mars, causing ricochet formations on the other side of the planet in the form of the volcanic highlands of Tarsis.
A similar formation on a smaller scale is the Argyr crater, which is opposed to the volcanic highlands of Elysium.
Before the disaster, Mars was similar to modern Earth
Before the collision, the internal structure of Mars was similar to that of Earth. The process of hydrogen degassing proceeded smoothly, the hot interior kept the metallic outer core in a molten state, which formed the planet's magnetic field.
Mars had a fairly dense atmosphere, similar to the antediluvian Earth, with a surface temperature of up to 50 ° C and a pressure of over 1.5 atmospheres.
A team of scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA) announced the discovery of manganese oxides in Martian rocks by the Curiosity rover in crevices in the sandstone in the Kimberley region of Gale crater. According to scientists, this may indicate a high level of oxygen in the ancient atmosphere of the Red Planet.
I believe that Martian water, like terrestrial water, was formed from a combination of hydrogen from the interior of the planet and atmospheric oxygen, which in turn indicates the presence of an aerobic form of life and photosynthesis!
Evidence of this is three meteorites of Martian origin found on Earth: ALH 84001, Nakla and Shergotti, in which formations similar to the fossil remains of microorganisms were found.
Catastrophic hydrogen degassing of Mars
At the moment of the collision that touched the core of the planet, conditions arose for the rapid outflow of magma and gases to the outer surface. Forming the four largest volcanoes in the solar system and the Tarsis Highlands.
The sharp degassing of the core of Mars led to the cooling of the interior and disruption of the circulation of molten metal in the outer core of the planet, and, consequently, to a significant decrease in the magnetic field.
Mars magnetosphere.
Now the magnetic field of Mars is extremely unstable, at different points on the planet its strength can differ from 1.5 to 2 times, and the magnetic poles do not coincide with the physical ones. This suggests that the iron core of Mars is in relative immobility in relation to its crust, that is, the planetary dynamo mechanism responsible for the Earth's magnetic field does not work on Mars.
Mars water resources
The release of a large amount of hydrogen from the depths significantly reduced the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere, which led to an increase in the level of the Martian ocean, which filled the northern part of the planet.
Study of images of Mars taken by the American orbiters Viking Orbiter 1 and Viking Orbiter 2 in 1976-1980. and the Global Surveyor Orbiter in 1997-2003, allowed some researchers, including TJ Parker, JW Head, H. Hiesinger, BK Lucchitta, M. Ivanov, M. Kreslavsky, to suggest the existence in the past in the northern half of Mars of an ocean or several communicating seas. Over a large extent of the Martian surface (the border of the Amazonian plain and the Lycus Rise, the border of the Plains of Acidalia and Arabia, and elsewhere), the contours of the ancient coastline are distinguishable. A dark homogeneous area in the north - the Acidalia plain - is the bottom of the ancient ocean with a volume of up to 15-17 million km³ and a depth of 0.7-1 km;the lighter and more variegated region to the south - the Arabian Plain - an ancient coastal lowland. It shows the dry beds of the Martian rivers and bays.
After the catastrophe, the planet's interior gradually cooled down, the magnetic field decreased, the water on the surface froze and became covered with sand. Only in rare cases of positive temperatures (up to +20 degrees Celsius) are river channels observed in the equatorial regions.
The bed of the Martian river, today.
Mars has liquid water
The diagram shows the thermodynamic conditions for the existence of ice, steam and water on Mars.
The small circle at the top of the diagram corresponds to a pressure of 6.1 mbar and a temperature of 0 ° C. The left shows the corresponding depth below the planet's surface. The vertical lines indicate the average annual temperatures for latitudes 30 and 70 ° N. The conditions for the existence of water in liquid form on the surface of Mars are reflected in a small triangular part of the diagram, highlighted in dark blue.
This refutes the "pressure ban" - the widespread opinion that water cannot be present in liquid form on the surface of Mars at all! It turns out that the "ban" is not absolute, therefore some geological formations on the planet's surface have a nature associated with water.
The Nanedi Valley is one of the many geological evidences for the water-rich ancient history of Mars (NASA / MSSS / Release MOC2-73 Nanedi).
Single springs of groundwater come to the surface, rushing down the frosty slope of Mars. If the temperature of the surface layer during the day is, depending on the latitude, from -60 to 10 ° C, the stream, going down the slope, will be absorbed into the dry frosty soil. The picture shows how the Martian river, narrowing, disappears.
Ravines narrowing along the slope are also found on Earth in desert regions and are associated with the direct absorption of water by dry warm soil. A closer analogue could be streams from geysers gushing in the caldera of the Erebus volcano in Antarctica.
In the cold season, even outside the polar caps, light frost can form on the surface. The Phoenix spacecraft recorded a snowfall, but the snowflakes evaporated before reaching the surface.
The acceleration of free fall on Mars is almost three times less than that of the Earth.
The elemental composition of the surface layer of the soil, determined from the data of the lander, is not the same in different places. The main component of the soil is silica (20-25%), containing an admixture of iron oxides hydrates (up to 15%), which gives the soil a reddish color. There are significant impurities of sulfur, calcium, aluminum, magnesium, sodium compounds (units of percent for each).
Radiological features of Mars
A characteristic feature of the Martian atmosphere is the predominant presence of two isotopes of inert gases there: xenon-129 and argon-40. A high concentration of xenon-129 in the Martian atmosphere, a large amount of uranium and thorium on the surface of the red planet compared to its meteorites (which our scientists first noticed, and now confirmed by the spectrogram of gamma rays from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft) mean that there was large-scale radiological events, as a result of which a large number of isotopes appeared, and the surface was covered with a thin layer of radioactive debris, some elements of which are much more radioactive than the Martian rocks below the surface. If we abstract from the nuclear war of Martian civilizations, these phenomena can be explained by the course of a thermonuclear reaction in the bowels of the planet,interrupted by a collision with a large cosmic body and the subsequent release of decay products to the surface.
Where are the Martians?
Let's hope that intelligent life forms have moved to a neighboring planet before the disaster. In this case, this event should have left a mark on earthly mythology. Those who were unable to evacuate may well have taken refuge under the surface of Mars.
On August 11, 1999, the American unmanned station "MarsGlobal" transmitted amazing images to Earth. In the area of the plain of Acedalia, objects were found that experts called the "Land of Tunnels" or the Martian "Glass Worms".
The diameter of the "tunnels" is sometimes 300 meters, and the length is up to 40 km. The ends of the pipes go into the rock or underground. The pipes are bent to match the landscape, sometimes joining at right angles.
It turns out that the processes of hydrogen degassing to varying degrees are inherent not only to the Earth, but also to Mars, and many cosmic bodies of our universe. A detailed study and comparison of various stages and cases of the process will inevitably lead to a rethinking of the formation of our solar system and a revision of the physics and history of the development of planets and their satellites!
Author: Igor Dabakhov