[philman_36]

There is a lot of water ice on Mars, comprising large geological features near the poles.
Really?! On the surface? I've kept up to some degree.

Found it! Ice on Mars

May 28, 2002: Using instruments on NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, surprised scientists have found enormous quantities of buried treasure lying just under the surface of Mars -- enough water ice to fill Lake Michigan twice over. And that may be only the tip of the iceberg.

Meteorite Impacts Expose Ice on Mars
September 24, 2009: Meteorites recently striking Mars have exposed deposits of frozen water not far below the Martian surface.

If there are "large geological features" on the surface then that's news to me.
Got link? I'm interested now.

[dr_lew]

Cf. the Wikipedia articles Planum Australe and Planum Boreum. I've always thought the Mars guys are "water happy", so maybe this is all CO2, but I think I should defer to them on this matter.

You know though, when they dug that little trench and found "ice", I didn't believe that. Seemed like "dry ice" to me. I even sent in a skeptical remark, and amazingly I got a reply ... blah blah blah, but a reply.

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/968494/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1448047/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1756678/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2154383/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2154383/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2506127/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2726270/posts

and from some know-all:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1088571/posts?page=46#46
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1057694/posts?page=68#68

My very first FR post:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1051021/posts?page=8#8