New research based on seismic measurements from NASA’s Mars InSight lander suggests that there may be enough water hidden in the cracks of underground rocks beneath the surface of Mars to form an ocean. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are based on more than 1,300 marsquakes detected by the lander before it shut down in 2022.
The water, located 11.5km to 20km beneath the surface, is believed to have collected billions of years ago when Mars had rivers, lakes, and possibly oceans. Lead scientist Vashan Wright of the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography noted that microbial life could exist deep underground on Mars if these interpretations are correct.
Researchers combined computer models with InSight data to come to their conclusions, with Matthias Morzfeld and Michael Manga also contributing to the study. InSight Lander, the first craft dedicated to exploring Mars’s interior, was located at Elysium Planitia near the planet’s equator.
If this location is representative of the rest of Mars, the underground water could potentially fill a global ocean 1-2km deep. Confirmation of the presence of water and the search for signs of microbial life would require the use of drills and other equipment.
Scientists have been using data collected by the lander to learn more about Mars’s interior. The planet, once wet over 3 billion years ago, is believed to have lost its surface water as its atmosphere thinned, leaving it the dry, dusty world it is today. Theories suggest that much of the ancient water either escaped into space or remains buried below the surface.
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