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ESS 250 – MARS

Winter 2004 Class Notes

REMINDER: Presentations (5 mins.) on MOC data analysis will be given on Thurs 11^th March!

All files are in Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt) or Word (.doc) format unless otherwise indicated

Email Prof. Nimmo (nimmo@ess.ucla.edu) if you have problems accessing them

· Course Outline Poster Advertizing Course

The course will consist of two parts. In the first part, the students will be given an overview of the surface, interior and atmosphere of Mars, both now and in the past. They will also be introduced to the remote sensing data sets available for Mars, and how to manipulate them. The second half of the course will consist of a series of 50 minute presentations by the students. Click here for the list of who is talking when.

These presentations will be on one of the topics listed below. The presentations may be paired, with one student arguing for a particular hypothesis, and the other against it. The presentations will be followed by a discussion of the relative merits of the various arguments used. All being well, we will also spend some time discussing the initial results of the Mars Express, Beagle and Mars Exploration Rover missions, due to arrive in January 2004!

Timing: the class will meet on Tuesday and Thursday from 1pm-2:30pm in 4677 Geology

Week 1 outline Powerpoint slides

Week 2 outline Powerpoint slides

Week 3 Powerpoint slides

Week 4 Powerpoint slides

Reading: There is no one book which covers all the topics we’re going to discuss. The massive Mars volume (Kieffer et al., eds., 1992, Univ. Arizona Press) is a good place to start, but is now outdated in places. A good and recent overview is provided by Mars: The Mystery Unfolds (Cattermole, Terra Publishing, 2001). A compilation by Kallenbach et al, eds., (2001, Kluwer Academic) has some useful articles. The special issue of Nature (v. 412, no. 6843, 2001) also has an excellent series of papers. Several of these articles are available below in PDF format:

Mars’ core and magnetism (D.J. Stevenson)

The crust and mantle of Mars (M.T. Zuber)

Water and the Martian landscape (V.R. Baker)

Mars’ volatile and climate history (B.M. Jakosky and R.J. Phillips)

Weather and the climate on Mars (C. Leovy)

Geological processes and evolution (J.W. Head et al.)

Cratering chronology and the evolution of Mars (W.K. Hartmann and G. Neukum)

Topics (others may be selected by the students):

Click here for the list of which student is presenting which topic.

Follow the links below to see the student presentations.

Did Mars ever have plate tectonics? (Hernlund)

Did Mars ever possess a Northern ocean? (Milbury / Leisner)