Upon the law
The amount of water is estimated to be enough to cover Mars in the ocean about a mile deep.
Posted by Leslie Eastman
Scientists have discovered large amounts of liquid water reservoirs deep in the surface of Mars, which marks our understanding of the water cycles of the Red Planet and has the potential to be habitable
The discovery was made using data from NASA's MARS Insight Lander, which recorded four years of seismic activity in MARS before the end of December 2022. By analyzing the speed of Marsquakes' seismic waves, researchers can infer the presence of liquid water in the planet's rocky shell.
Three billion years ago, Mars was covered by oceans and flowing water. Today, the Red Planet’s landscape is very different, without liquid surface water (just frozen water ice), rocky passages and dry lake beds that once rivers and lakes.
But, according to a new study published Monday in the Journal, Mars' miles below its ground may contain a large number of reservoirs that are trapped in crevices of groceries and volcanic rocks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. If extracted, it would be enough to create a range of oceans on Earth about a mile deep, the researchers said.
NASA's Insight Lander data is a robot designed to study Mars' deep inside, revealing the underground ocean. Despite this, the water is a huge reservoir. It is wrapped in miniature cracks in the earth's crust, about 7 to 13 miles. These findings could help researchers fuse all the water from billions of years ago, which could be the next place to look for signs of life.
Using data collected by the SEIS (Seismic Experiment of Internal Structures) instrument, Ikuo Katayama, a researcher at Yuya Akamatsu from the Institute of Marine Geodynamics at the Japan Island University, believes that seismic waves believe that seismic waves show groundwater 6-12 miles deep in a barren situation.
Seis is the first seismometer ever to operate on Mars, and it is sensitive to three different types of seismic waves. These are: P waves, which oscillate back and forth, similar to the way sound waves propagate. S-waves oscillating up and down the direction of travel; and surface waves, which travel along the Martian surface, are similar to ripples in ponds.
The new study focuses on underground P and S waves. The p-wave is a faster seismic wave, while the S-wave is slower and cannot pass through water because the liquid does not allow the kind of oscillation perpendicular to the motion. Seismometers that measure these two different types of seismo waves can help reveal the density and composition of underground media such as water or rocks that propagate these waves through the intensity of their signals and the time it takes them to reach the seismometer.
With this in mind, Katayama and Akamatsu honed the two transition areas in the seismic data, during which the properties inside the Red Planet suddenly changed, with a depth of 6.2 to 12.4 miles (10 and 20 kilometers), very close to previous studies, during which there was evidence of liquid water.
This discovery is good/bad news for those who want to colonize Mars.
The good news is that there is possible water available on Earth that can be mined and recycled for use. Like the groundwater on Earth, Martian water lives in cracks and gaps.
The bad news is that there is the potential for microbial life in that water.
On Earth, these water-filled rocks can host microorganisms even deep in the earth's crust. Since liquid water is one of the basic requirements of life as we know it, does this mean that Mars can also host microorganisms underground?
“That's a billion dollar issue,” the comic added.
This kind of life will make calculations and decisions related to exploring and colonizing Mars challenging.
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