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Frozen sea likely under Mars surface
A frozen sea surviving as blocks of pack ice may lie just beneath the surface of Mars, the New Scientist magazine said on Monday citing observations from Europe's Mars Express spacecraft.
A frozen sea surviving as blocks of pack ice may lie just beneath the surface of Mars, the New Scientist magazine said on Monday citing observations from Europe's Mars Express spacecraft.
Images from the high resolution stereo camera on Mars Express showed of structures called plates that look similar to ice formations near Earth's poles.
These plates could indicate the first discovery of a large body of water beyond Mars' polar ice caps, the review said. The team of researchers, led by John Murray of Britain's Open University, estimated the possible submerged ice sea at about 800 by 900 km in size and 45 metres deep on average.
The researchers said the evidence suggested that the plates, estimated to be about 5 million years old, were not just imprints left by ice that has now completely vanished.
While the site of the plates near Mars' equator means that sunlight should have melted any ice there, the team suggested that a layer of volcanic ash, perhaps a few centimetres thick, may protect the structures.
