January 23, 2009
Water on Mars
I just thought I'd bring up the discovery that Mars' northern pole has between 2 - 3 million cubic kilometres of ice (about 95% pure). This is about 100 times the volume of North America's Great Lakes. On Earth there are about 41 million cubic kilometres of freshwater. About 69% is thought to be locked into permanent ice and snow. About 30% is located within soil and aquifers. This leaves about 1% or 0.41 million cubic kilometres to run free on the surface. A large number of people get drinking water from aquifers, but this suggests that with wise management, Mars' water should be able to support a population substantially larger than what now exists on Earth.
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4 comments:
Very cool site. You should keep up with it. I'm sure many of us who are gardeners during the day are stargazers at night.
Thanks for commenting. I have a lot of interests and sometimes I drift away from some for a time. I almost always end up coming back though...
Nice site with a hunk owner :)
Keep on good shape.
ès um puto muito giro.
Hug from Lisbon - Portugal
Have you read Red Mars? Since it is about terraforming Mars, thought you'd like it. The first in the trilogy is the best.
http://www.amazon.com/Red-Mars-Trilogy-Stanley-Robinson/dp/0553560735/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296525075&sr=8-1
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