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	<title>Comments on: Snow place like Mars</title>
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	<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/29/snow-place-like-mars/</link>
	<description>I am an astronomer, writer, and skeptic. I likes reality the way it is, and I aims to keep it that way. My real name is Phil Plait, and I run the Bad Astronomy blog.</description>
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		<title>By: Snow Falling on &#8230; Mars</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/29/snow-place-like-mars/comment-page-1/#comment-226205</link>
		<dc:creator>Snow Falling on &#8230; Mars</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:52:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/29/snow-place-like-mars/#comment-226205</guid>
		<description>[...] Astronomy: Snow Place like Mars Universe Today: Snow is Falling From Martian Clouds Martian Chronicles: Phoenix Sees Snow and [...]</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>[...] Astronomy: Snow Place like Mars Universe Today: Snow is Falling From Martian Clouds Martian Chronicles: Phoenix Sees Snow and [...]</p>
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		<title>By: This time, Phoenix won&#8217;t arise from the ashes &#124; Bad Astronomy &#124; Discover Magazine</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/29/snow-place-like-mars/comment-page-1/#comment-133553</link>
		<dc:creator>This time, Phoenix won&#8217;t arise from the ashes &#124; Bad Astronomy &#124; Discover Magazine</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/29/snow-place-like-mars/#comment-133553</guid>
		<description>[...] science it did was very cool, but one of the more interesting stories was the detection of falling snow in the atmosphere of Mars. Somehow, Earthlike weather on Mars brought this story [...]</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>[...] science it did was very cool, but one of the more interesting stories was the detection of falling snow in the atmosphere of Mars. Somehow, Earthlike weather on Mars brought this story [...]</p>
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		<title>By: Snow Falling on &#8230; Mars &#171; Alice&#8217;s Astro Info</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/29/snow-place-like-mars/comment-page-1/#comment-126801</link>
		<dc:creator>Snow Falling on &#8230; Mars &#171; Alice&#8217;s Astro Info</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:09:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/29/snow-place-like-mars/#comment-126801</guid>
		<description>[...] Astronomy: Snow Place like Mars Universe Today: Snow is Falling From Martian Clouds Martian Chronicles: Phoenix Sees Snow and [...]</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>[...] Astronomy: Snow Place like Mars Universe Today: Snow is Falling From Martian Clouds Martian Chronicles: Phoenix Sees Snow and [...]</p>
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		<title>By: Sarafan</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/29/snow-place-like-mars/comment-page-1/#comment-122286</link>
		<dc:creator>Sarafan</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:39:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/29/snow-place-like-mars/#comment-122286</guid>
		<description>@bjn: try looking up &quot;Aragonite&quot; (a polymorph of calcite), &quot;Travertine&quot; or &quot;Ooids&quot; (think shallow-sea kidney stones).

Its true that most of the calcite on earth is biogenic in origin, however that&#039;s a selection effect. life on earth , specifically calcareous lifeforms in the ocean, keeps the concentration of calcium and bicarbonate ions in seawater low by using it to produce calcite and aragonite. if the concentration was greater, you&#039;d see a lot more non-biogenic calcite. so while caves and hot-springs absent of calcareous life forms may not be a significant sources of calcite on Earth, its because there aren&#039;t many places on Earth where life doesn&#039;t have a chance to use it all up. And in those few instances were you do have supersaturation of calcium in seawater, you have both biogenic calcite, and nonbiogenic oolites.

As an analogy, lets look at iron oxide. we see lots of the stuff on Mars in the form of hematite and magnetite, and In fact its another indicator that Mars at one point had liquid water, as both form in aqueous environments. however on earth, most of the iron oxide we mine and use comes from &quot;banded iron formations&quot;. BIFs were formed by ancient cyanobacteria, as a means of handling the oxygen they produced through photosynthesis. they took iron ions out of sea water to bond with their waste, leaving behind layer after layer of biogenic rock. we don&#039;t say the the iron oxides on Mars must be biological in origin though, because its clear that in the absences of life, chemical processes could have just as easily rusted surface iron.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>@bjn: try looking up &#8220;Aragonite&#8221; (a polymorph of calcite), &#8220;Travertine&#8221; or &#8220;Ooids&#8221; (think shallow-sea kidney stones).</p>
<p>Its true that most of the calcite on earth is biogenic in origin, however that&#8217;s a selection effect. life on earth , specifically calcareous lifeforms in the ocean, keeps the concentration of calcium and bicarbonate ions in seawater low by using it to produce calcite and aragonite. if the concentration was greater, you&#8217;d see a lot more non-biogenic calcite. so while caves and hot-springs absent of calcareous life forms may not be a significant sources of calcite on Earth, its because there aren&#8217;t many places on Earth where life doesn&#8217;t have a chance to use it all up. And in those few instances were you do have supersaturation of calcium in seawater, you have both biogenic calcite, and nonbiogenic oolites.</p>
<p>As an analogy, lets look at iron oxide. we see lots of the stuff on Mars in the form of hematite and magnetite, and In fact its another indicator that Mars at one point had liquid water, as both form in aqueous environments. however on earth, most of the iron oxide we mine and use comes from &#8220;banded iron formations&#8221;. BIFs were formed by ancient cyanobacteria, as a means of handling the oxygen they produced through photosynthesis. they took iron ions out of sea water to bond with their waste, leaving behind layer after layer of biogenic rock. we don&#8217;t say the the iron oxides on Mars must be biological in origin though, because its clear that in the absences of life, chemical processes could have just as easily rusted surface iron.</p>
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		<title>By: bjn</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/29/snow-place-like-mars/comment-page-1/#comment-122142</link>
		<dc:creator>bjn</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:47:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/29/snow-place-like-mars/#comment-122142</guid>
		<description>Please point out a significant source of calcium carbonate that&#039;s not related to a biological process.

I&#039;ve been looking for some since you suggest there isn&#039;t a very high correllation between calcium carbonates and life on this planet, but the only two alternative processes I&#039;ve found are either derivative of biology or are very much enhanced by biological processes:

http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&amp;name=News&amp;file=article&amp;sid=2596

http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/7/645</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Please point out a significant source of calcium carbonate that&#8217;s not related to a biological process.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve been looking for some since you suggest there isn&#8217;t a very high correllation between calcium carbonates and life on this planet, but the only two alternative processes I&#8217;ve found are either derivative of biology or are very much enhanced by biological processes:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&#038;name=News&#038;file=article&#038;sid=2596" rel="nofollow">http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&#038;name=News&#038;file=article&#038;sid=2596</a></p>
<p><a href="http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/7/645" rel="nofollow">http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/7/645</a></p>
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		<title>By: rosebud</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/29/snow-place-like-mars/comment-page-1/#comment-122128</link>
		<dc:creator>rosebud</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:25:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/29/snow-place-like-mars/#comment-122128</guid>
		<description>Hey, that&#039;s the snowman from North St. Paul, MN.  It&#039;s half a block away from my dentist&#039;s office.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hey, that&#8217;s the snowman from North St. Paul, MN.  It&#8217;s half a block away from my dentist&#8217;s office.</p>
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		<title>By: PG</title>
		<link>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/29/snow-place-like-mars/comment-page-1/#comment-122096</link>
		<dc:creator>PG</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:51:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/29/snow-place-like-mars/#comment-122096</guid>
		<description>@Davidlpf: I think Sarah Palin did live at high altitudes for a while, so wouldn&#039;t that make her a Mars expert- since she lived so much closer to it than most people?</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>@Davidlpf: I think Sarah Palin did live at high altitudes for a while, so wouldn&#8217;t that make her a Mars expert- since she lived so much closer to it than most people?</p>
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