{"127981":{"#nid":"127981","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Ancient Volcanic Blast Provides More Evidence of Water on Early Mars","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe atmosphere of Mars is less than 1 percent the density of Earth\u2019s. It\u2019s one of the reasons liquid water covers much of our planet but cannot exist on the Red Planet. As more research points toward the possibility of water on early Mars, scientists have increased their studies on the density of its atmosphere billions of years ago. It\u2019s not an easy task. In fact, it\u2019s very difficult to even determine Earth\u2019s atmospheric pressure from the same time frame.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech Assistant Professor Josef Dufek is attempting to learn more about the past atmospheric conditions by analyzing two unlikely sources: ancient volcanic eruptions and surface observations by the Mars rover Spirit. His new findings, published by the journal Geophysical Research Letters, provide more evidence that early Mars was saturated with water and that its atmosphere was considerably thicker, at least 20 times more dense, than it is today.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAtmospheric pressure has likely played a role in developing almost all Mars\u2019 surface features,\u201d said Dufek, an instructor in the School Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. \u201cThe planet\u2019s climate, the physical state of water on its surface and the potential for life are all influenced by atmospheric conditions.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDufek\u2019s first research tool was a rock fragment propelled into the Martian atmosphere during a volcanic eruption roughly 3.5 billion years ago. The deposit landed in the volcanic sediment, created a divot (or bomb sag), eventually solidified and remains in the same location today. Dufek\u2019s next tool was the Mars rover. In 2007, Spirit landed at that site, known as Home Plate, and took a closer look at the imbedded fragment. Dufek and his collaborators at the University of California-Berkeley received enough data to determine the size, depth and shape of the bomb sag.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDufek and his team then went to the lab to create bomb sags of their own. They created beds of sand using grains the same size as those observed by Spirit. The team propelled particles of varying materials (glass, rock and steel) at different speeds into dry, damp and saturated sand beds before comparing the divots with the bomb sag on Mars. No matter the type of particle, the saturated beds consistently produced impact craters similar in shape to the Martian bomb sag.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy varying the propulsion speeds, Dufek\u2019s team also determined that the lab particles must hit the sand at a speed of less than 40 meters per second to create similar penetration depths. In order for something to move through Mars\u2019 atmosphere at that peak velocity, the pressure would have to be a minimum of 20 times more dense than current conditions, which suggests that early Mars must have had a thicker atmosphere. Click \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gr_D6JAtfeQ\u0022\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E for a video demonstration.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur study is consistent with growing research that early Mars was at least a transiently watery world with a much denser atmosphere than we see today,\u201d said Dufek. \u201cWe were only able to study one bomb sag at one location on the Red Planet. We hope to do future tests on other samples based on observations by the next rover, Curiosity.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECuriosity is scheduled to land on Mars on August 5.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe material is based upon work supported by NASA under award No NNX09AL20G. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAssistant Professor Josef Dufek\u0027s new findings provide more evidence that early Mars was saturated with water and that its atmosphere was considerably thicker, at least 20 times more dense, than it is today.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Josef Dufek is attempting to learn more about the past atmospheric conditions by analyzing two unlikely sources: ancient volcanic eruptions and surface observations by the Mars rover Spirit."}],"uid":"27560","created_gmt":"2012-05-03 09:42:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:12:09","author":"Jason Maderer","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2012-05-03T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2012-05-03T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"128001":{"id":"128001","type":"image","title":"Martian Bomb Sag Image","body":null,"created":"1449178622","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:37:02","changed":"1475894751","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:51","alt":"Martian Bomb Sag Image","file":{"fid":"194558","name":"marsbombsag.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/marsbombsag_0.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/marsbombsag_0.png","mime":"image\/png","size":661831,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/marsbombsag_0.png?itok=MV_KcvV8"}},"128081":{"id":"128081","type":"image","title":"Josef Dufek","body":null,"created":"1449178622","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:37:02","changed":"1475894751","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:51","alt":"Josef Dufek","file":{"fid":"194562","name":"dufek.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/dufek_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/dufek_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1027944,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/dufek_0.jpg?itok=EktdOkYB"}}},"media_ids":["128001","128081"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gr_D6JAtfeQ","title":"Video of Lab Demonstration"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.cos.gatech.edu\/","title":"College of Sciences"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.eas.gatech.edu\/","title":"School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences"}],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"32491","name":"Josef Dufek"},{"id":"7057","name":"Mars"},{"id":"27001","name":"Volcano"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003EMedia Relations\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-385-2966\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["maderer@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}