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Mars has no open waters. However, scientists have unveiled evidence of substantial water reserves hidden deep beneath the Red Planet’s surface. A new study suggests that vast amounts of water, potentially enough to fill entire oceans, may be trapped between 11.5 and 20 kilometres below the Martian soil.
The discovery has renewed hopes of finding life on the planet. The amount of groundwater could cover the entire planet to a depth of 1-2 kilometres, the study published in journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences noted.
“Water is necessary for life as we know it. I don’t see why [the underground reservoir] is not a habitable environment,” Michael Manga of University of California (UC), Berkeley and the lead author of the study, said in a statement.
The expert went on to say that life can be found in deep mines and at the bottom of the ocean. “We haven’t found any evidence for life on Mars, but at least we have identified a place that should, in principle, be able to sustain life,” he added.
Many billion years ago, Mars’ atmosphere was dense and warm enough to form rivers, lakes, and perhaps even oceans of water.
As the planet lost its atmosphere, it turned into its current cold, arid desert state. Martian oceans are thought to have vanished more than three billion years ago.
Currently, water exists in the atmosphere, holding a bare trace of water vapour. The other sources are the ice-rich layers in the polar caps and region and the water chemically locked up in rocks and minerals such as clays.
The new study analysed data from National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s InSight lander launched to Mars in 2018. Its goal was to investigate the Martian interiors and atmosphere, and it recorded invaluable information. The mission ended in 2022.
“The mission greatly exceeded my expectations,” Manga said. “From looking at all the seismic data that InSight collected, they’ve figured out the thickness of the crust, the depth of the core, the composition of the core, even a little bit about the temperature within the mantle.”
Manga and colleagues used a mathematical model to make sense of the seismic data from InSight. They found that the data can be best explained by a deep layer of fractured igneous rock hosting liquid water. Igneous rocks are cooled hot magma.
This means the water exists in the racks and pores in rock in the middle of the Martian crust.
The researchers explain that future Martian colonies might not be able to utilise this underground water, given its distance. This is because of challenges in digging through the surface. For example, on Earth, the Kola Superdeep Borehole is the deepest human-made hole at 12.2 km beneath the surface.
The findings, however, could help scientists understand the geological past of Mars. “Understanding the Martian water cycle is critical for understanding the evolution of the climate, surface and interior,” Vashan Wright, a former UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow who is now an assistant professor at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said in a statement.
