Mars’s rusty crust proposed as ancient climate heater — SkimNews
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- Cin-Ty Lee proposes that water reacting with iron in Mars’s crust steadily supplied atmospheric hydrogen for millions of years; depending on CO₂ levels, he estimates even a few per cent of H₂ would warm the average global temperature above freezing.
- Mars’s thick crust is thought to extend as far as 80 kilometres beneath the southern highlands; Lee’s 2024 calculations showed that sufficient thickness would melt ice in the upper few kilometres and create aquifers.
- Martian aquifers would circulate water through porous, iron-rich basalt; rusting the iron would free hydrogen molecules that rise into the atmosphere.
- The hydrothermal pump eventually died after running out of water and seeing radioactive power diminish, shutting down the proposed circulation.
- Ramses Ramirez says he remains skeptical until he sees a full paper and that the explanation may require “extremely favourable circumstances”; he notes water-driven hydrogen release was proposed more than a decade ago, while Lee argues his work derives it from thick crust.
- Cin-Ty Lee says the hypothesis is testable by looking deep into the Martian crust: if oxidation extends several kilometres down, “this is the only way it can happen.”
- Mars’s red dust gets a bonus explanation: impacts expose rusted rock underground, and wind erosion turns it into dust that coats the surface.
Why it matters: Lee’s estimate makes deep Martian chemistry a practical test: even a few per cent of atmospheric hydrogen, with sufficient CO2, would lift the mean temperature above freezing. Oxidation several kilometres down would distinguish his mechanism, but Ramses Ramirez says it still needs extremely favorable circumstances.
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