Re: Liquid CO(2) is not going to just materialize
Posted by Dale on Mar 21, 2002 at 10:18
(204.212.222.7)Re: Liquid CO(2) is not going to just materialize (Amaranth Rose)
I was expecting Danny to make that mistake in his rush to promote water as being the only possible cause but…
If you read the article it explains the supposed discrepancy. “Tanaka and his colleagues propose a "magmatic erosion model" to explain the features of the volcanic areas of Malea and Hesperia Plana, suggesting that they underwent catastrophic erosion associated with explosive eruptions of molten rock. They suggest that liquid in the Martian crust was heated when molten rock, or magma, rose to the surface. As the liquid was heated, it expanded, until the pressure of overlying material was too great, and an explosive eruption occurred, shattering overlying rock, and causing it to move with the magma in an erosive debris flow.”
As was pointed out earlier you are correct that the triple point of CO2 would require a much higher pressure than the current atmospheric pressure of Mars but the answer lies underground. The pressure comes from the rock cap above the CO2 and the expanding magma below. The time it could exist is dependent on how long it takes the CO2 to move the fractured rock out of the way so that it can expand into the atmosphere. Mt. St. Hellens flowed quite a distance before the fractured rock let its lubricant escape.