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Meteorite Indicates Mars Had Earth-Like Oceans
By Craig Linder
States News Service
posted: 07:00 pm ET
23 June 2000
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By Craig Linder WASHINGTON The oceans of ancient Mars may have been very similar to the oceans of Earth, according to a study in the July issue of the journal Meteorics and Planetary Science. Researchers analyzed the interior of a 1.2 billion-year-old Martian rock known as the Nakhla meteorite that landed in the Egyptian desert in 1911 and found water-soluble ions, or charged particles, within the golf ball-sized rock. 
The Nakhla meteorite provides clues to early Martian oceans. Scientists think the ions were deposited in the cracks of the meteorite when salty brine water evaporated. The chemical composition of the brine is a close match to that of Earths oceans, said Arizona State University professor Carleton Moore, one of the researchers on the study. Tests of the meteorite showed high levels of sodium and chloride, along with other concentrations of magnesium, fluoride and sulfate -- all elements found in Earths seawater. The only major difference found between the Martian rock and seawater was a higher level of calcium in the meteorite. Moore believes that the mineral was removed from Earths oceans by plants, corals and sea life over the past 600 million years. The study gives researchers their first look at the chemical composition of Mars' ancient oceans, which vanished millions of years ago because the planet does not have the gravity or the atmosphere to retain surface oceans. "The oceans just leaked away," Moore said. Moore said that with a renewed focus on exploration of Mars, he hopes that NASA will try to retrieve rock samples from the planet's surface and from deep within its core. The news -- first reported on SPACE.com -- that NASA had found evidence of water on Mars has sparked renewed interest in the exploration of Mars. Scientists have said that the evidence could tell us something about the current or past presence of life on Mars.Even though early life on Earth was found in the ocean, Moore was hesitant to speculate on whether life on Earth was in any way related to potential life on Mars. "We know the chlorine is there and we know the soluble materials are there, so those are the facts," he said. "What it all means, well, thats a theory."
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