Surprise, surprise: Subsurface water on Mars defy expectations

Wed, 17 Aug 2022 06:57:52 GMT
Space Daily

San Diego CA (SPX) Aug 11, 2022 A new analysis of seismic data from NASA's Mars InSight mission has...

The first surprise: the top 300 meters of the subsurface beneath the landing site near the Martian equator contains little or no ice.

The second surprise contradicts a leading idea about what happened to the water on Mars.

Many experts suspected that much of the water became part of the minerals that make up underground cement.

"If you put water in contact with rocks, you produce a brand-new set of minerals, like clay, so the water's not a liquid. It's part of the mineral structure," said study co-author Michael Manga of the University of California Berkeley.

The lack of cemented sediments suggests a water scarcity in the 300 meters below InSight's landing site near the equator.

The below-freezing average temperature at the Mars equator means that conditions would be cold enough to freeze water if it were there.

Many planetary scientists, including Manga, have long suspected that the Martian subsurface would be full of ice.

There is no liquid water on the surface, and subsurface life would be protected from radiation.

Already under consideration is the proposed international robotic Mars Ice Mapper Mission to help NASA identify potential science goals for the first human missions to Mars.

Some of the most extensively preserved landforms on Mars created by running water on its surface are found within the Margaritifer Terra region where deposits of clay-bearing sediments have been identified.