Of course what this all means is that Mars must have once had a greenhouse atmosphere
similar to that of the Earth, probably more CO2 than anything else and unlikely to have ever been
breathable but an atmosphere that was still much warmer than what it is today nonetheless.
Otherwise the water would have always remained frozen at the poles and we would not see all the
evidence of erosion that is still visible on the surface.
The question is thus raised: It is quite obvious that Mars once had an atmosphere of sorts and a
great deal of water on its surface, so where did it all go? Why is Mars now so desolate? Sometime
in the past it appears that the planet somehow lost its ability to retain its warmth and lost all of its
Fig.87a Fig.87b
Fig.87catmosphere. In the process it also lost all of its abundant water and oceans which either
disappeared into space or seeped underground to lie locked and frozen beneath the surface.
What could have happened?
The answer to this question may well lie in the visible geology of the planet because there is
every indication that Mars recently suffered an enormous catastrophe on quite a global scale
which caused enough damage for it to physically lose its atmosphere and a good deal more