WASHINGTON -- No need to be dried out on a dry world like Mars. A huge, easy-to-get-to watering hole appears to be available for the tapping, conveniently situated on the Red Planet.
That kind of resource would be welcomed news for any future expedition in setting up a Mars camp. Not to mention scientists looking for present-day local life there.
Evidence for a large ground water reservoir -- capped by a relatively shallow layer of ice -- exists within the Mars' Solis/Thaumasia Planum region, says a team of scientists. The site is south of the huge Martian canyon system, Valles Marineris.
Their findings are reported in the August 15 issue of the American Geophysical Union's Geophysical Research Letters.
SPACE.com first
may be concentrated in the Solis/Thaumasia Planum region," Nadine Barlow of the Department of Physics at the University of Central Florida in Orlando told SPACE.com.Barlow led a study team looking into sub-surface ice and water reservoirs. Her colleagues on the work are John Koroshetz of Laser Energetics in Oviedo, Florida, and James Dohm of the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
The group reported they have taken hard looks at the smooth plains of Solis Planum, an area peppered with impact craters and material excavated from those craters. Their work focuses on looking at the morphology of craters -- shapes and forms -- and the deposits, or ejecta, spewed out from craters during their creation.
Crater size and the ejecta patterns are considered signposts for what lies beneath -- in this case possible subsurface water, in both icy and liquid form.
Crater counts
The team reported that they culled through Mars surface images taken in the 1970s by two Viking
Orbiters. Using those photos, the locations and diameters of hundreds of craters were mapped and cataloged.
To shore up their case for a reservoir, laser data taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft of nearly 1,000 craters of varying diameters and depths was reviewed. Doing so, the team double-checked the methodology they used to grasp depth-diameter relationships for Martian craters.
Results of the research show smaller than average onset diameters of single layer craters in Solis and Thaumasia Planae, strongly suggesting a near-surface ice reservoir in this area.
Geologic and tectonic history
The geologic and tectonic history of the Tharsis region -- the area in which the suspected reservoir sits -- provides a possible explanation for the localized concentration of ice and water, the team reported. Long-term activity in this region would have tilted the water table, pooling the material in the topographic low of Solis Planum.
"Heat associated with Tharsis may have maintained deep volatiles as liquid for a longer time period than elsewhere in the Martian equatorial region," the team reported.
This unusual near-surface ice-reservoir may be easily accessible given its depth of around 360 feet (110 meters).
"The next stage of this study will be to look at reasonable values of porosity and water concentrations to gain a better understanding of how much ice and water may actually be contained within this reservoir," Barlow said.
The team is continuing their analysis of the area with Mars Global Surveyor data.
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