Speaker: Jeff Taylor, University of Hawaii
Title: Volatile Element Inventory in Mars, and a bit about the Moon
Abstract:
The abundances of water and other volatile elements (C, N, S, and highly volatile elements such as Tl) are important for determining the mix of components that accreted to form Mars and in assessing the significance of their role in magmatic processes on Mars. Water is particularly important because it greatly affects phase equilibria in magmas and has shaped the surface of the planet. It also has implications for the habitability of Mars. (The previous sentence is required by NASA astrobiology regulations, in spite of it being irrelevant because Mars has no life.) This talk will explain how we can use data from Martian meteorites and missions to Mars (orbital and landers) to look through the varied and complicated geochemical processing that has modified Mars to determine the initial concentrations. The results indicate that Mars is enriched compared to Earth in highly volatile elements compared to Earth, by is depleted in H and C. Basically, the two planets have similar volatile element concentrations, but those elements are distributed quite differently in the two planets because of extensive recycling on Earth, driven by plate tectonics.
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Tea, coffee, and cookies will be available at 2:45pm.
For remote participation
URL: http://connect.arc.nasa.gov/uhnai_seminar/
Polycom: 128.171.226.130##2701
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