CO2 condensation is a serious limit to the deglaciation of Earth-like planets

2017/03/31 by Martin Turbet, F. Forget, Francois Forget +5 · 1 citation
Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrobiology #Astronomy #Atmosphere (unit) #Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics #Atmospheric sciences #Climatology #Cryosphere #Deglaciation #Equator #Geodesy #Geology #Geomorphology #Glacial period #Ice divide #Ice shelf #Ice-albedo feedback #Internal heating #Meteorology #Physics #Planet #Planetary surface #Scientific Research and Discoveries #Sea ice #Sea ice thickness #Terrestrial planet #astro-ph.EP

paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2017.07.050

45 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in EPSL

openalex publication_date 2017/08/15 · arxiv created 2017/08/17 · arxiv updated 2017/08/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

It is widely believed that the carbonate-silicate cycle is the main agent to trigger deglaciations by CO₂ greenhouse warming on Earth and on Earth-like planets when they get in frozen state. Here we use a 3D Global Climate Model to simulate the ability of frozen planets to escape from glaciation by accumulating enough gaseous CO₂. We find that Earth-like planets orbiting a Sun-like star may never be able to escape from glaciation if their orbital distance is greater than ∼ 1.27 AU (Flux < 847 W m^-2 or 62% of the Solar constant), because CO₂ would condense at the poles forming permanent CO₂ ice caps. This limits the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere and thus its greenhouse effect. The amount of CO₂ that can be trapped in the polar caps depends on the efficiency of CO₂ ice to flow laterally as well as its graviational stability relative to subsurface water ice. The flow of CO₂ ice from poles to equator is mostly controlled by the bottom temperature, and hence by the internal heat flux. We find that a frozen Earth-like planet located at 1.30 AU of a Sun-like star could store as much as 1.5/4.5/15 bars of dry ice at the poles, for internal heat fluxes of 100/30/10 mW m^-2. But these amounts are lower limits. For planets with a significant water ice cover, we show that CO₂ ice deposits should be gravitationnally unstable. They get buried beneath the water ice cover in geologically short timescales of ∼~10⁴ yrs, mainly controlled by the viscosity of water ice. CO₂ would be permanently sequestered underneath the water ice cover, in the form of CO₂ liquids, CO₂ clathrate hydrates and/or dissolved in subglacial water reservoirs (if any). This would considerably increase the amount of CO₂ trapped and further reduce the probability of deglaciation.

Citations

• Solar interior structure and luminosity variations
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Cited by

• Decrease in Hysteresis of Planetary Climate for Planets with Long Solar Days