Elsevier

Icarus

Volume 265, February 2016, Pages 187-208
Icarus

The early geodynamic evolution of Mars-type planets

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2015.10.019Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • A range of early evolution scenarios for Mars like planets have been explored.

  • Early mobile-lid is plausible for Mars like planet within a certain parameter range.

  • Early mobile-lid/episodic models could be consistent with martian constrains.

  • A range of uncertainties that influence early Mars evolution has been explored.

Abstract

It is not clear whether Mars once possessed active tectonics, yet the question is critical for understanding the thermal evolution of Mars, and the origin and longevity of its early dynamo. To address these issues, we have coupled mantle flow simulations, together with parameterized core evolution models, to simulate the early evolution of Mars-like planets, and constrain the influence of early mobile-lid tectonics on core evolution. We have explored a wide parameter suite, encapsulating a range of uncertainties in initial conditions, rheological parameters, and surface strength. We present successful models that experience early mobile-lid behaviour, with a later transition into a stagnant-lid mode, which reproduce core dynamo histories similar to the magnetic history of early Mars.

Keywords

Geophysics
Mars
Planetary dynamics
Thermal histories

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