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Habitable Snowballs: Temperate Land Conditions, Liquid Water, and Implications for CO$_2$ Weathering
- Publication Year :
- 2018
-
Abstract
- Habitable planets are commonly imagined to be temperate planets like Earth, with areas of open ocean and warm land. In contrast, planets in snowball states, where oceans are entirely ice-covered, are believed to be inhospitable. However, we show using a general circulation model that terrestrial planets in the inner habitable zone are able to support large unfrozen areas of land while in a snowball state. Due to their lower albedo, these unfrozen regions reach summer temperatures in excess of 10 $^\circ$Celsius. Such conditions permit CO$_2$ weathering, suggesting that continental weathering can provide a mechanism for trapping planets in stable snowball states. The presence of land areas with warm temperatures and liquid surface water motivates a more-nuanced understanding of habitability during these snowball events.<br />Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures; significant revisions after peer review (including changed title and abstract); accepted for publication in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets
- Subjects :
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- arXiv
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsarx.1803.00511
- Document Type :
- Working Paper
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JE005917