Ancient Mars likely hosted oceans similar to those on Earth; however, such water is not presently observed on Mars. One possible explanation for the lack of present-day oceans is that surface water was transported into and stored within the interior of Mars throughout the geological history. As water can influence the rheological structure of the Martian lithosphere, we investigated the sensitivity of the elastic thickness of the lithosphere to water using recent laboratory data. Calculations indicate that the presence of water results in a significant decrease in elastic thickness relative to dry conditions at a given thermal structure. Gravity and topographic data acquired by the Mars Global Surveyor and other orbiters indicate a temporal change in elastic thickness during the geological history of Mars. The extremely thin elastic layer during the planet’s early history can be explained by a water-rich rheological model, whereas a dry rheology can account for the relatively thick elastic layer inferred during the later evolution of Mars. Although thermal evolution of Mars has a large uncertainty, the strong sensitivity of elastic lithospheric thickness to water suggests possible sequestered water into deeper levels during the early history of Mars.

中文翻译：

---

火星岩石圈中弹性厚度对水的敏感性

古代火星可能拥有与地球相似的海洋。但是，目前在火星上还没有观察到这种水。对于当今海洋缺乏的一种可能的解释是，在整个地质历史中，地表水一直被输送到火星内部并在内部存储。由于水会影响火星岩石圈的流变结构，因此我们使用最新的实验室数据研究了岩石圈弹性厚度对水的敏感性。计算表明，在给定的热结构下，相对于干燥条件，水的存在导致弹性厚度显着降低。火星全球测量师和其他轨道器获得的重力和地形数据表明，在火星的地质历史过程中，弹性厚度随时间发生了变化。行星早期历史上极薄的弹性层可以用富含水的流变模型来解释，而干流变学可以解释火星后期演化过程中推断的相对较厚的弹性层。尽管火星的热演化具有很大的不确定性，但弹性岩石圈厚度对水的强烈敏感性表明，在火星的早期历史中，可能将水螯合到更深的水平。