Layer
- Name
- Sublimation mantle
- Order
- 2
- Type of layer
- other
- Texture
- other
- Type of porosity
- particulate
- Porosity
- 0.9975 $\pm$ 0.0005
- Density
- 0.005 $\pm$ 0.001 $g.cm^{-3}$
- Comments
- The layer is a porous foam-like structure, made of "ribbons" of smectite (only few micrometers thick) interlaced or connected together (see Poch et al., 2016b). After sublimation of the water, the places previously occupied by the water crystals is now empty, resulting in an extremely high porosity of the smectite residue, also called sublimation mantle. The observed ribbons are probably the relics of the water crystals interfaces.
- Formation mode
- fractionated sublimation
- Rate
- 0.27 $\pm$ 0.02 $mm/h$
- Comments
- The layer was produced by sublimation of the ice in the lower layer.