NATS 1570 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Plate Tectonics, Carbonate Rock, Planetary Science
15 Apr 2020
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Document Summary
Mars has a thin atmosphere (1% of earth"s) that is mostly carbon dioxide. This is sufficient to generate weather and clouds. Mars does not currently have a global magnetic field, but likely did in the past. Magnetic field - currently does not have a planet wide magnetic field. Although mars has either a small iron core or a larger iron sulphur core, it has only an extremely weak magnetic field, with mostly localised features. There does seem to be evidenced in the rock that in the past mar"s field may have been much stronger. This also includes some features that look somewhat like the sea flow magnetic striping we see here on earth. This atmosphere does contain traces of oxygen water vapour. There is enough water vapour to produce a thin cloud cover on the surface. Methane gas was detected in mars" atmosphere using ground based telescopes. The methane gas distribution is patchy and changes with time.
