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PLATE TECTONICS
PLATE TECTONICS
Plate tectonics was introduced to us by a German geologist and meteorologist. In the year of 1911 he published the findings of Permian-aged terrestrial fossils in various parts of South America, Africa, India, Antarctica, and Australia. His theory was these continents were joined during Permian and the term 'Pangea' was coined. He continued on to prove this theory by utilizing his astronomical evidence and found the continents Greenland and Scandinavia were in fact moving. Wegener's first book was published in 1912 but only accepted by a few geologist that went on to continue his findings and expand them to something much more today.
A new study founded by scientist of Space.com have published a article in 2012, August 14 based on Mars surface having shifting plates just like earth giving us lots of possibilities with this planet. What this means is this planet becomes a better candidate to host life and they have even theorized seismic shifts or 'Marsquakes' (Staff, 2012). Some scientist have compared their findings of a steep cliff comparable to Californias Death Valley that are generated by fault. The photo below also show evidence of what is believed to be tectonic activity.
With all of this plate tectonic talk and the discoveries these fine scientist have made give hope into believing that the replenishing of nutrient organisms and carbon dioxide can exist! The atmosphere on Mars contains 95% carbon dioxide making it impossible for humans to breathe and any living thing would freeze from the temperature drop. What does make this planet a candidate is the soil on Mars because it contains nutrients plants need to survive and grow. (Candanosa, 2017)
The photo above shows the surface of Mars and the possibility of this planet being at its primitive stage of plate tectonics meaning we can get an idea of what earth may have looked like during its most early stages of development. It seems Mars once had active tectonic plates spreading away from volcanic rifts. There is talk of this possibly being plate tectonics? It is still in the air but research is looking into the new discoveries of Mars evidence seeing active plate tectonics. In 1997 the first detection of a magnetic field embedded in Mars crust at random. They found them to be magma near the surface that were hardened, earlier in the history of the planet, locking in pieces of magnetic field that existed at the time. What this meant was, although the interior of Mars has cooled and produces no magnetic field today, it at some point had enough heat to churn the planets molten iron core into a magnetic dynamo (Kerr, 1999). The pattern was enough to bring to scientists attention and study more into this but it was not enough to match Earth's yet. The symmetrical pattern of the stripes has not been seen as of yet but there are research studies out there finding that answer out today.
www.science.org/content/article/past-tectonics-mars