On the habitability of a stagnant-lid Earth

Tosi N, Stracke B, Godolt M, Ruedas, T, Grenfell L, Höning D, Nikolaou A, Plesa A-C, Breuer D, Spohn T

Abstract

Plate tectonics is considered fundamental for the habitability of the Earth and possibly a prerequisite for the habitability of other planets. Yet whether plate tectonics is a recurrent feature of terrestrial bodies orbiting other stars or unique to the Earth is unknown. The stagnant lid, which characterises the terrestrial bodies of the Solar System other than the Earth, may rather be the most common tectonic mode through which such bodies operate. In order to understand to what extent a stagnant-lid planet can be habitable (i.e., host liquid water at its surface), we model the thermal history of the mantle, the accompanying outgassing evolution of water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2), and the resulting climate of a hypothetical planet with the same mass, radius, and composition as the Earth, but lacking plate tectonics.