![]() Above a water activity of ~0.6, brine duration is dominated by evaporation, lasting at most a few minutes per sol. At locations where brines may be stable, we find that their lifetimes can be characterized by two regimes. In the subsurface, this trend is reversed, and equatorial regions are more favorable to brine stability, but only for the lowest water activities (and lowest eutectic temperatures). We find that equatorial regions typically have temperatures too high for stable brines, while high latitudes are susceptible to permanent freezing. Our work considers all major phase changes (i.e., evaporation, freezing, and boiling) and is consistent, regardless of brine composition, so it is applicable to any brine relevant to Mars. We combine experimentally verified constraints on brine thermodynamics along with a global circulation model to develop a new extensive framework of brine stability on the surface and subsurface of Mars.
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