RT Journal Article
T1 The surface heatflow of Mars at the Noachian–Hesperian Boundary
A1 Ruiz Pérez, Javier
A1 Martínez Parro, Laura
A1 Egea González, Isabel
A1 Romeo Briones, Ignacio
A1 Álvarez Lozano, Julia
A1 Jiménez Díaz, Alberto
AB The time period around the Noachian–Hesperian boundary, 3.7 billionyears ago, was an epoch when great geodynamical and environmental changes occurred on Mars. Currently available remote sensing data are crucial for understanding the Martian heat loss pattern and its global thermal state in this transitional period. We here derive surface heat flows in specific locations based on the estimations of the depth of five large thrust faults in order to constrain both surface and mantle heat flows. Then, we use heat-producing element (HPE) abundances mapped from orbital measurements by the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) onboard the Mars Odyssey 2001 spacecraft and geographical crustal thickness variations to produce a global model for the surface heat flow. The heat loss contribution of large mantle plumes beneath the Tharsis and Elysium magmatic provinces is also considered in our final model. We thus obtain a map of the heat flow variation across the Martian surface at the Noachian–Hesperian boundary. Our model also predicts an average heat flow between 32 and 50 mW m−2, which implies that the heat loss of Mars at that time was lower than the total radioactive heat production of the planet, which has profound implications for the thermal history of Mars.
PB MDPI
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/120272
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/120272
LA eng
NO Ruiz, J., Parro, L. M., Egea-González, I., Romeo, I., Álvarez-Lozano, J., & Jiménez-Díaz, A. (2025). The surface heat flow of mars at the noachian–hesperian boundary. Remote Sensing, 17(2), 274. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17020274
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
NO Universidad Complutense de Madrid
NO European Commission
NO Generalitat Valenciana
DS Docta Complutense
RD 31 dic 2025