New research based on seismic data from NASA’s Mars InSight lander suggests that there may be an underground water reservoir beneath the surface of Mars that could potentially form an ocean. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicate that water in fractures 11.5km to 20km beneath the surface may have collected there billions of years ago when Mars had rivers, lakes, and oceans.
Lead scientist Vashan Wright from the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, along with Matthias Morzfeld and Michael Manga, analyzed more than 1,300 marsquakes detected by the InSight lander before it shut down in 2022. They used computer models and seismic data to determine that underground water was the most likely explanation for the readings.
If the findings are correct and InSight’s location is representative of the rest of Mars, the underground water could be enough to fill a global ocean 1-2km deep. However, further confirmation through drilling and exploration would be needed to verify the presence of water and any potential signs of microbial life.
The discovery of underground water on Mars could have significant implications for our understanding of the planet’s history and potential for life. Scientists have been studying the data collected by InSight to gain more insights into Mars’s interior and evolution from a wet world to the dry, dusty planet it is today.(addr:04)
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