Title: Magnetic
crust of Mars
Source: JOURNAL
OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-PLANETS 110 (E8): Art. No. E08005 AUG 23 2005
Document Type: Article
Language: English
Abstract: The
strong magnetic anomalies of Mars require highly magnetic sources in
the crust. The bottom of the potentially magnetic layer is constrained
by the Curie temperature of its magnetic carriers, and the top of the
layer is constrained by the thickness of the uppermost crust that has
been demagnetized by the impacts. This paper presents a systematic
study of the thermal evolution of the Martian crust and the effects of
eight major physical parameters on the thickness of the potentially
magnetic layer in the crust. It is shown that the initial upper mantle
temperature, the mantle viscosity, and the total radioactive content of
Mars are the major parameters that have substantial effects on the
thermal state of the crust in the first 1 Gyr of the planet's history.
The magnetic source bodies that have been magnetized by the core field
during the first 500 Myr are located in the upper about 100 - 90, 90 -
80, or 55 - 45 km of the crust if hematite, magnetite, or pyrrhotite is
the major magnetic carrier of the source bodies, respectively. The
shock pressures induced in the crust by impacts can demagnetize the
uppermost part of the crust. It is demonstrated in this paper that
impacts that create craters of diameters larger than similar to 200 km
are capable of demagnetizing the entire crust, and those that create
craters of diameters less than similar to 50 km can demagnetize the
upper 10 - 20 km of the crust. Detailed studies of the secondary
thermal remanent magnetization acquired by deeper parts of the crust,
in the absence of the core field but in the presence of the magnetic
field of the upper crust, suggest that the secondary magnetization has
minor effects on the observed magnetic anomalies of Mars.
KeyWords Plus: EARLY
PLATE-TECTONICS; THERMAL EVOLUTION; SNC METEORITES; MARTIAN CRUST;
IMPACT DEMAGNETIZATION; EARLY DIFFERENTIATION; ELASTIC LITHOSPHERE;
INTERIOR STRUCTURE; INTERNAL STRUCTURE; ANOMALIES
Addresses: Arkani-Hamed
J (reprint author), McGill Univ, 3450 Univ St, Montreal, PQ H3A 2A7
Canada
McGill Univ, Montreal, PQ H3A 2A7 Canada
Publisher: AMER
GEOPHYSICAL UNION, 2000 FLORIDA AVE NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20009 USA
Subject Category: GEOCHEMISTRY
& GEOPHYSICS
IDS Number: 960DW
ISSN: 0148-0227