A single underground deposit of ice on Mars contains about as much water as there is in Michigan's Lake Superior, according to new research from NASA.
The deposit rests in the mid-northern latitudes of the Red Planet, specifically in the Utopia Planitia region. Discovered by the Shallow Subsurface Radar (SHARD) instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), the deposit is "more extensive in area than the state of New Mexico," according to a NASA press release. It ranges in thickness from about 260 feet to about 560 feet, and has a composition that's 50 to 85 percent water ice, with what appears to be dust or larger rocky particles mixed in as well.
None of the ice is exposed to the surface. At various points the dirt covering it is in between 3 and 33 feet thick. Built by the Italian Space Agency, the SHARD probes the Martian subsurface with radar waves using a 15-25 MHz frequency band.
The discovery was truly an international accomplishment. NASA began to investigate the region after Gordon Osinski, an Associate Professor of Planetary Geology at Western University in Ontario, Canada, got in touch. Professor Osinski told the American space agency how the ground-surface patterns of Upper Planitia, with notable polygonal cracking and rimless pits, reminded him of the Canadian Arctic. In the Arctic of the Great White North, these are telltale signs of ground ice. While no ground ice was found, the underwater deposits show that the two planets share geological traits.
"It's important to expand what we know about the distribution and quantity of Martian water," said MRO Deputy Project Scientist Leslie Tamppari of JPL. "We know early Mars had enough liquid water on the surface for rivers and lakes. Where did it go? Much of it left the planet from the top of the atmosphere. Other missions have been examining that process. But there's also a large quantity that is now underground ice, and we want to keep learning more about that."
Source: JPL
David Grossman is a staff writer for PopularMechanics.com. He's previously written for The Verge, Rolling Stone, The New Republic and several other publications. He's based out of Brooklyn.
