mars_ice_000919 WASHINGTON --
Mars appears to have a huge underground ice reservoir that could serve as a "watering hole" for future human explorers trekking across the Red Planet.Researchers have spotted what they suggest is a near-surface ice reservoir, about the size of Arizona, located in the
Solis Planum region, south of Mars Valles Marineris. "Id say its probably fairly large," said Nadine Barlow, director of the University of Central Floridas Robinson Observatory in Orlando. "This is a very promising site, one that we need to get more information about," she told SPACE.com.
Research by Barlow, also an assistant professor of astronomy at the university, along with graduate student, John Koroshetz, indicates that the ice deposit is huge. It likely stretches for miles (kilometers) below the Martian surface and is a few miles thick.
Barlow said that the giant underground pocket of suspected ice might be easy pickings. It could start just 650 feet (200 meters) or less from topside.
Ejecta patterns
Culling through photos of Mars surface snapped in the 1970s by Viking Orbiters, Barlow and Koroshetz eagle-eyed specific regions of
the Martian surface. They studied the morphology of craters -- individual shapes and forms --and the deposits, or ejecta, thrown from craters during their formation.[quote]
The team took a hard look at the smooth plains of the
Solis Planum region on Mars. It is pockmarked with craters and ejecta patterns consistent, Barlow said, with varying amounts of subsurface water, both in liquid and ice form. "Certain crater morphologies indicate ice and other craters, we feel, are impacts into liquid reservoirs. We see both types in that area. Water may also be close to the surface in that area, underneath the ice layer," Barlow said.
"We did not find another big reservoir like the one we found south of Valles Marineris. This seems to be the biggest one that weve identified," Barlow said.
Fire and ice
Why is there such a giant cache of
water and ice in that spot?Barlow said the reservoir is located on the eastern slope of the Tharsis bulge. In Mars past, that landscape was the site of a geological squeeze play of tectonic forces, erupting volcanoes and other stresses.
"Our idea is that, as this volcanic region was being uplifted, the water table was tilted in that area, congregating the water into the Solis Planum location, which tends to be a slightly lower region than the surroundings," Barlow said.
Information gleaned from a laser-scanning device toted by the Mars Global Surveyor, currently operating in orbit, shows that Solis Planum is actually a depression. That topographic data helps shore up the case for the underground reservoir idea, Barlow said.
A high-resolution look-see of the area taken by the Global Surveyor, coupled to other data from the Mars-circling probe, is forthcoming, Barlow said.
Barlow lens
Looking into the future, having on-the-spot surveys of
Solis Planum would be ideal, Barlow said.Much of the water that appears to have existed on the planet is likely still there. The challenge still facing any humans-to-Mars effort is identifying where water and ice reservoirs are located, determining how much water is available in these reservoirs, and devising strategies by which future astronauts to Mars can obtain such resources for their use.
Solis Planum shouldnt present any landing problems for future explorers.
"There are spots there smooth enough to be a landing site. It should be easy to get to," Barlow said. "If we can find a near-surface reservoir, that is intriguing news for any future Mars colonists. They could drill down and mine that water reservoir," she said.
Down in the valley
A Mars encampment at Solis Planum could give astronauts reaching power, as well as access to resources.
The grand canyon of Mars -- Valles Marineris -- is within easy striking distance. It offers a bounty of discoveries, said Baerbel Lucchitta, a Mars researcher at the U.S. Geological Surveys offices in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Valles Marineris is a system of canyons about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) long that, if on Earth, would stretch all the way across the United States.
Within the deep recesses of Valles Marineris, it is possible that subsurface liquid water exists there, Lucchitta said. Large landslides in that area appear to have taken place in relatively recent times, geologically speaking, she said.
"We dont really know how recently. There is evidence that water came out some of these landslide deposits. So there was water involved when they slumped," Lucchitta said. "But it isnt like it was yesterday," she added.
"You do see a lot of features that look like there was slumping, creeping and mass movement of some sort or another. A lot of that looks like it might have had water in it, or at least ice," Lucchitta said.
Lakebeds and fossils?
Valles Marineris offers robotic and human explorers on Mars the opportunity to look at interior deposits that could be remnants of former lakes, Lucchitta said.
Lucchitta said that airplanes, balloons or any other remote measurements that can scan the Valles Marineris system are sure to produce a scientific bonanza. While that terrain is a rugged, there are locales within the canyon system that are safe touchdown spots for future landers.
"But a
rover would need a lot more mobility than we have right now," Lucchitta said, to traverse to more exciting venues within Valles Marineris."Its important to go there and find any evidence for past lakes on Mars," Lucchitta said. "If they are there, that may be an area where we find fossil life of some sort."
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