New study suggests ocean of water lies beneath Mars’s surface
Al Jazeera
The findings follow analysis of seismic readings from NASA’s Mars InSight lander before it shut down in 2022.
New research suggests there may be enough water hiding in the cracks of underground rocks beneath the surface of Mars to form an ocean.
The findings are based on seismic measurements from NASA’s Mars InSight lander, which detected more than 1,300 marsquakes before it shut down two years ago.
The researchers combined computer models with InSight data, including the quakes’ velocity, to determine underground water was the most likely explanation for the seismic readings. The results were published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The water – in fractures 11.5km (7.15 miles) to 20km beneath the surface – was most likely to have collected there billions of years ago when Mars harboured rivers, lakes and possibly oceans, according to the lead scientist, Vashan Wright of the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
“On Earth, what we know is where it is wet enough and there are enough sources of energy, there is microbial life very deep in Earth’s subsurface,” Wright said. “The ingredients for life as we know it exist in the Martian subsurface, if these interpretations are correct.”
