Water on Mars exists at the poles and in the subsurface. It has interacted with crustal rocks, providing geomorphological, geochemical, and mineralogical insights into Mars’ geological history and inferences about its biological potential. The roles of water are revealed through studies of altered materials using orbiting-spacecraft imagery and spectroscopy, instruments mounted on rovers, and laboratory measurements on Martian meteorites.
The Variscan orogen formed between 380 and 300 million years ago through several accretionary and collisional cycles, culminating with the construction of the Pangea supercontinent. This process occurred via sequential opening and closure of oceanic basins, synchronous detachment of Gondwana derived continental ribbons, and their outboard amalgamation onto the Laurussia margin. The Variscan orogen is rather unique compared with other orogenic belts on Earth: its overthickened and dominantly magmatic crust in the central belt, surprisingly minor mantle involvement in the magmatic and geodynamic processes, coherent and pulsed magmatism along the collision suture, and its complex accretionary history. Because its final product, Pangea, is the youngest and best-understood supercontinent on Earth, the Variscan orogeny offers clues for understanding the mechanisms of supercontinent formation.
