Mars may have ocean’s worth of water beneath surface, new study suggests
- Study suggests there may be enough water hiding in the cracks of underground rocks on Mars to form a global ocean
Mars may be drenched beneath its surface, with enough water hiding in the cracks of underground rocks to form a global ocean, new research suggests.
The findings released on Monday are based on seismic measurements from Nasa’s Mars InSight lander, which detected more than 1,300 marsquakes before shutting down two years ago.
This water – believed to be seven miles to 12 miles (11.5km to 20km) down in the Martian crust – most likely would have seeped from the surface 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.
Just because water still may be sloshing around inside Mars does not mean it holds life, Wright said.
“Instead, our findings mean that there are environments that could possibly be habitable,” he said in an email.
His team combined computer models with InSight readings including the quakes’ velocity in determining underground water was the most likely explanation. The results appeared Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
If InSight’s location at Elysium Planitia near Mars’ equator is representative of the rest of the red planet, the underground water would be enough to fill a global ocean a mile or so (1km to 2km) deep, Wright said.