Why is there no tetonic activity on Mars?

Question

Nothing moving? Maybe I should ask why we have tetonic activity on Earth.

Does Mars have molten rock at its core? Is it alive or just a frozen lump of rock and water?

Answer 1

Mars has solidified and it lost its magnetic poles because of it, it's atmosphere went into space also.

The tectonic activity on earth is caused by the crust basically floating on the molting rock beneath it.

Answer 2

Really no body in our solar system outside of the gas giants has enough heat left over from formation to power any form of geological activity (the heat of formation comes from the conversion of gravitational potential energy into heat as the world forms). What powers earth? The radioactive decay of elements in the core. Elements like uranium, thorium and potasium have isotopes that decay into other elements and when they do they give off energy (heat).

The earth and venus are both large enough to still have a significant supply of radioactive fuel, and by being larger bodies, radiate away that heat less efficiently than the smaller rocky bodies (mars, the moon, mercury). Once those elements start to run low, there is no longer enough heat to continue to melt the surface of the word, and the planet goes dormant. This has happened to the small rocky bodies of the solar system (such as mars), but earth and venus still have enough left to power their volcanism.

Answer 3

Earth has tectonic activity because it is still cooling down after 4 billion years. Earth releases heat through tectonic activity. Mars cooled down billions of years ago, and as a result, no longer has any tectonic activity. Mars used to have a molten core, but no longer does.

Answer 4

This iron sulfide core is partially fluid, with twice the concentration of light elements that exists at the Earth's core. The core is surrounded by a silicate mantle that formed many of the tectonic and volcanic features on the planet, but now appears to be inactive.

The thing is no one knows because there hasn´t been enough research or evidence collected, most of the information is THEORY (educated guessing)

Answer 5

Mars is smaller than earth so the initial heat of formation had less insulating rock to bleed out through.

Mars is further away from the center of the solar systems formation, it probably got less heavy elements during its formation. The heavy elements are critical to geological activity because of their radioactivity. Mars has less so its radio-thermal energy reserve ran dry earlier. Earths radio-thermal reserves have kept our planets' crust in motion.

Answer 6

I agree with bldudas,, but feel I need to add,, there are a lot of questions about Mars and it's early/present history we really do not yet know the answers to, this is one of them.

The only way we will know for sure is to go there and check it out.

Answer 7

There use to be but Mars is too small to retain it's formation energy so the core is now cold and solid, no convection no plate movement.

Answer 8

This is largely due to the fact that beef dripping only works on toast with plenty of salt on.
Also, the hairs on Frank Bough's arms contain Japanese snipers.