3 ms·

I would have thought geothermal (martiothermal?) power would be the biggest long-term potential result of this. No mention of that in the article, though.

AnimalMuppet 3y ago
If it's been dead long enough to have eroded like that, the potential for geothermal power may be quite low.
causi 3y ago
The pedantic term would be "areothermal". I hate the practice of replacing "geo" in every word when used with other planets, though.
- jvanderbot 3y ago
  Areo for Ares, god of war, for those wondering. Mars is the romanized version of Ares, IIRC
- alanbernstein 3y ago
  Why is that? They're similar conceptually but very different environments, so the distinction seems reasonable. If there were companies building geothermal equipment for Mars, it would likely have quite different requirements versus earth, right?
  - causi 3y ago
    Do we need to change the "hydro" part of "hydraulic" when using fluids that aren't water? It's pedantry.
- Karellen 3y ago
  Well, we could use the prefix "astro-" for generic celestial objects, including planets. So you could go with "astrothermal". And then the study of those objects, cf. geology, would be.... no, wait. (Is there a generic prefix for just planetary bodies that we should be using? If so, what is it? If not, why not?)
  - itishappy 3y ago
    Lithothermal?
    - yetanotherloser 3y ago
      I like that. A nice generalisation.
    - Karellen 3y ago
      That would make the study of land masses and arrangement... lithography. :-/
dredmorbius 3y ago
Maybe, though I suspect there's little if any potential. There was, however, a recent paper published suggesting that there is still liquid magma beneath the Mars surface based on seismic activity: "Magma on Mars likely", by Marianne Lucien, 27.10.2022 Since 2018, when the NASA InSight Mission deployed the SEIS seismometer on the surface of Mars, seismologists and geophysicists at ETH Zurich have been listening to the seismic pings of more than 1,300 marsquakes. Again and again, the researchers registered smaller and larger Mars quakes. A detailed analysis of the quakes’ location and spectral character brought a surprise. With epicentres originating in the vicinity of the Cerberus Fossae - a region consisting of a series of rifts or graben - these quakes tell a new story. A story that suggests vulcanism still plays an active role in shaping the Martian surface. <https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2022/10/magma-on-mars-likely.html https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2022/10/mag...> (I found the article above after initially assuming Mars was completely geologically dead, which had been the consensus until recently. Had to re-write my response ;-)

AnimalMuppet 3y ago

If it's been dead long enough to have eroded like that, the potential for geothermal power may be quite low.

causi 3y ago

The pedantic term would be "areothermal". I hate the practice of replacing "geo" in every word when used with other planets, though.

jvanderbot 3y ago
Areo for Ares, god of war, for those wondering. Mars is the romanized version of Ares, IIRC
alanbernstein 3y ago
Why is that? They're similar conceptually but very different environments, so the distinction seems reasonable. If there were companies building geothermal equipment for Mars, it would likely have quite different requirements versus earth, right?
- causi 3y ago
  Do we need to change the "hydro" part of "hydraulic" when using fluids that aren't water? It's pedantry.
Karellen 3y ago
Well, we could use the prefix "astro-" for generic celestial objects, including planets. So you could go with "astrothermal". And then the study of those objects, cf. geology, would be.... no, wait. (Is there a generic prefix for just planetary bodies that we should be using? If so, what is it? If not, why not?)
- itishappy 3y ago
  Lithothermal?
  - yetanotherloser 3y ago
    I like that. A nice generalisation.
  - Karellen 3y ago
    That would make the study of land masses and arrangement... lithography. :-/

dredmorbius 3y ago

Maybe, though I suspect there's little if any potential. There was, however, a recent paper published suggesting that there is still liquid magma beneath the Mars surface based on seismic activity: "Magma on Mars likely", by Marianne Lucien, 27.10.2022 Since 2018, when the NASA InSight Mission deployed the SEIS seismometer on the surface of Mars, seismologists and geophysicists at ETH Zurich have been listening to the seismic pings of more than 1,300 marsquakes. Again and again, the researchers registered smaller and larger Mars quakes. A detailed analysis of the quakes’ location and spectral character brought a surprise. With epicentres originating in the vicinity of the Cerberus Fossae - a region consisting of a series of rifts or graben - these quakes tell a new story. A story that suggests vulcanism still plays an active role in shaping the Martian surface. <https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2022/10/magma-on-mars-likely.html https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2022/10/mag...> (I found the article above after initially assuming Mars was completely geologically dead, which had been the consensus until recently. Had to re-write my response ;-)