Climate implications resulting from recent satellite images of the Martian surface will be the focus of a talk Wednesday, April 28, at 3 p.m. in Room 129 of the University of Wyoming Classroom Building.
Fred Ogden, UW's Cline Distinguished Chair of Engineering, Environment and Natural Resources, will be the speaker. He says recent satellite images of the Martian surface offer tantalizing clues of relatively recent flows of liquid water inside craters.
"However, current climatic conditions there seem to make this extremely unlikely, leading some to propose that hypersaline groundwater or geothermal heat are possible drivers," says Ogden. "The Antarctic dry valleys (ADVs) are a close mimic for Martian conditions."
Ogden spent 12-days in the field in the ADVs in January, making observations and collecting data on cold-regions' runoff generation processes. Wednesday's presentation will focus on the factors required to produce runoff in Antarctica, similarities, and dissimilarities between the ADVs and the Martian surface.
