Gigantic Ice Slab Found on Mars Just Below the Planet's Surface

Space.com ^ | September 10, 2015 | Charles Q. Choi

[lbryce]

This image shows a digital terrain model of the crater investigated by the University of Arizona's Ali Bramson. Image released August 26, 2015.

A giant slab of ice as big as California and Texas combined lurks just beneath the surface of Mars between its equator and north pole, researchers say.

This ice may be the result of snowfall tens of millions of years ago on Mars, scientists added.

Mars is now dry and cold, but lots of evidence suggests that rivers, lakes and seas once covered the planet. Scientists have discovered life virtually wherever there is liquid water on Earth, leading some researchers to believe that life might have evolved on Mars when it was wet, and that life could be there even now, hidden in subterranean aquifers. [‪Photos: The Search for Life on Mars]

The amount of water on Mars has shifted dramatically over the eons because of the Red Planet's unstable obliquity — the degree to which the planet tilts on its axis of rotation. Unlike Earth, Mars does not have a large moon to keep it from wobbling, and so the direction its axis points wanders in a chaotic, unpredictable manner, regularly leading to ice ages.

Although researchers have long known that vast amounts of ice lie trapped in high latitudes around the Martian poles, scientists have recently begun to discover that ice also is hidden in mid-latitudes, and even at low latitudes around the Martian equator.

[lbryce]

thank you very much

[SunkenCiv]

Green Stamps? Welcome to FR, Rip Van Winkle! ;’) I used to enjoy shopping with those things, but that’s a long time ago now.

[Joe 6-pack]

Same as it ever was...

[lbryce]

You ‘d think I was serious!

[SunkenCiv]

;’)

[SunkenCiv]

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