Here is a video that illustrates just what happened to the vast oceans of Mars, thought to be once present on its surface.

This video shows the correlation between pressure and boiling point. As pressure decreases, so does the point at which a liquid will boil. This is due to the nature of states of matter. A liquid will boil when its molecules have enough kinetic energy to escape into the atmosphere in the form of vapour. The temperature of matter is a metric of its energy – at sea level on Earth, the boiling point of water is 100°C. The lower the pressure on a liquid, the less kinetic energy is required for the substance to vaporise, meaning that its boiling point is lower.

The video supports the Europlanet Mars Collection of Educational Resources - 2. A Brief History of Mars: a journey through different periods of history on Mars to assess how the habitability of the Red Planet has changed over time. https://www.europlanet-society.org/mars-collection-of-educational-resources-2-a-brief-history-of-mars/

Europlanet 2024 RI has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 871149.