TITLE:
Evidence for Large Planetary Climate Altering Thermonuclear Explosions on Mars in the Past
AUTHORS:
John E. Brandenburg
KEYWORDS:
Mars, Isotopes, Xenon, Argon, Nitrogen, Potassium, Thorium, Thermonuclear Explosion
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics,
Vol.13 No.2,
June
25,
2023
ABSTRACT: Mars data presents a collection of startling and seemly contradictory isotopic data: a glaring excess of the two radiogenic isotopes 129Xe/132Xe @ 2.5 and 40Ar/36Ar @ 3000 enabled identification of MM (Mars Meteorites) because they are so different than any other major Solar System reservoir. Mars appears to have lost an original atmosphere of pressure 1 bar or greater, yet the ratio 14N/15N indicates only a loss of a few millibar by Solar Wind Erosion. The LPARE (Large Planet Altering R-process Event) hypothesis attempts to explain these major isotopic puzzles at Mars by postulating that two massive, anomalous thermonuclear explosions, rich in R-process physics, occurred over the surface of Northern Mars in the past, approximately 500 million years ago, and that these explosions created the 129Xe/132Xe excess, and the accompanying intense neutron bombardment of Mars atmosphere and regolith created the 40Ar/36Ar excess off of potassium in the surface rocks. The collateral massive and non-mass fractionating atmospheric loss, and the intense neutron bombardment of 14N in the atmosphere primarily created the 14N/15N ratio we presently observe, with some mass fractionating erosion of the residual atmosphere. This LPARE hypothesis is found to explain other isotopic features of Mars atmosphere and surface. 80Kr and 82Kr are hyperabundant in the Mars atmosphere and in the youngest MMs indicating intense irradiation of Mars surface with neutrons. Although there is presently no plausible explanation for the nuclear events, the hypothesis can be tested through related nuclear products such as Pu-244.